Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his address earlier and the great level of detail he went into. I commend the very many actions taken heretofore by the Government in co-operation with various State agencies as well as EU partners. Even though the work has been exhaustive, there will always be more work because it is very hard to wholly prepare for Brexit, particularly when we are at this very late stage in negotiations and we do not know exactly what form Brexit will take. It is providing much concern and indeed worry for many sectors of the economy and wider society. This transition period was to be used to prepare and negotiate but here we are at the beginning of October and negotiations are ongoing. Indeed it seems there are some people who want to reopen negotiations on matters that have been resolved and are legally binding. That said, there are still so many supports open to our businesses and our enterprise sector as a whole. More can be done however, not necessarily by Government, but particularly by the business sector itself. While I have met many businesspeople around the country who are in large organisations and have the luxury of appointing a Brexit-preparedness officer, our SMEs are dealing at the moment with the economic onslaught of a global pandemic, the likes of which has not been seen for more than a century and they do not have the time to appoint such an officer. They are talking about supply-chain management and where they get their export markets from. Their supplier may be in Dún Laoghaire but where is their supplier's supplier? That is providing uncertainty and it is still so important that they continue to work with Government and agencies to prepare. Driver's licences are one area where quite a simple thing has been done and I commend the Road Safety Authority, RSA, on this. People resident in the State can no longer drive solely on a British driver's licence. Approximately 70,000 are in this situation. I found out in a reply to a parliamentary question to the Minister for Transport that 53,000 people have switched over their driver's licences but a considerable number of people still need to do that before 31 December.

I wish to push the Tánaiste on his remarks about the €5 billion Brexit adjustment reserve created by the EU, as well as the EU recovery fund. This is something I challenged the Minster of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, on during pre-European Council statements. This is something where we have to be proactive. One of the great achievements made by Irish diplomats, the permanent government and everything else, over the past few years is to lean on our EU network - a very strong network and one we are very proud of - to ensure we have that level of solidarity when it comes to Brexit and the withdrawal agreement. We need to once again dip into the well to stress to European colleagues how deeply affected Ireland will be by Brexit and how important it is that we get those vital supports.

One are that falls under the Tánaiste's own brief and that is going to be particularly difficult, albeit vitally important, is looking at our diversification and at the markets Ireland can appeal to. Over the past couple of years, our reliance on the British market has declined. Let us not forget that when we joined the EEC in 1973, 60% of our exports went to the UK alone, which is a massive number. At the moment, products such as cheddar cheese and others are wholly reliant on the British market but much more work can be done. First and foremost is exports to other member states. We have seen the rise in exports to France and Germany. Equally, we will see that expand further into other member states and we need to continue the development of our diplomatic footprint within the EU. It is brilliant that we are opening embassies in Auckland and soon in Accra but we need to maintain our diplomatic presence in all member states. I spoke earlier of our soft power and the importance of European solidarity. The fact is that Ireland was able to maintain its diplomatic network within the EU through the very difficult years of the financial crisis and not closing a single embassy was vitally important to that. We have to maintain that representation both within the member states and with our permanent representatives in Brussels to ensure that influence is maintained.

We also need to consider where else we can trade through the EU. We must use the new European trade deal with Japan, a deal that is not only agreed and ratified but is in operation. We must likewise use trade deals with South Korea, Canada and more important, soon to be agreed deals with countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia as well, potentially, as ones with Australia and New Zealand. That is particularly relevant to the Tánaiste's Department. I acknowledge, however, that it will be extremely difficult to do a trade mission via Zoom as it is not something that necessarily comes to us very easily but we have to adjust to that. I spoke to the Irish-Australian Chamber of Commerce only last week. It was 10 a.m. in my office and we were speaking to people who were going to bed in Sydney and all of these other places staying up for the conversation. It was a frank conversation. They now see Ireland as the gateway into the single market. Equally, other countries are gateways, such as into south east Asia. Improving our trading ties with north America and elsewhere is important and again, this falls on the Minister of State, as does ensuring that the Commission and the new European Commissioner for Trade, Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis, pushes the need for increased external trade.

Returning to the core issue we are discussing, one of the most important trade deals will, hopefully, be decided in the next couple of days, if not the next couple of weeks. Maintaining a trading relationship with the UK is vitally important for the EU. It is a lot more important to the UK than to the EU despite what some people say in certain tabloid newspapers but it is vitally important for Ireland and certainly for key sectors. I assume Deputy Cahill will address the agrifood sector shortly with a level of expertise I can only dream of. That is why we need to ensure there is a deal. A thin deal would be extremely disappointing but it would be something and it could be built upon. I commend the Tánaiste on the work of his Department over the past number of years and the work ahead which it faces. We are less than 90 days away from Brexit. We need to continue to prepare at all levels of society. There is no such thing as a good Brexit but we have to prepare and make the best of what will unfortunately be a bad situation.

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