Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are 50 days away from when the UK may leave the Single Market and customs union and the end of the transition period. I echo the Minister’s comments where he hopes the provisions of this Bill are never required. Ultimately, an agreement is in the best interests of all of these islands and the peoples on them. One reads the provisions of the Bill more in sadness than in anger. Anger was an emotion we experienced during the early phases of Brexit. Anger will not get us anywhere. As we read through each provision, and I have listened to the contributions of the previous speakers, I accept the importance of the service that is provided, not just for those who need routine operations but I am also thinking of rare disease patients who may need to access services in the UK, where the centre of excellence for that service across the world may be based.

Listening to the contributions from Deputies Michael Collins and Mattie McGrath, one would think Deputy Coveney is a Minister of the Crown and not a Minister of this Republic. This Bill is about the UK walking away. If the UK walks away, we cannot force it to do anything. We cannot force it to provide services in hospitals which are unfortunately within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at this point in time. I may want something different politically but the reality of the different jurisdictions on this island is what grappling with Brexit has been all about. I blame Fine Gael for many things but it is preposterous to suggest that this Government is standing in the way of giving guarantees for services that are provided in the UK.

On Parts 2 and 3 of the Bill, will the Minister consider, when negotiating the memorandum of understanding, those rare disease patients? Often those services are accessible in those centres of excellence. There are many rare disease patients who are greatly concerned that the treatment abroad scheme they may have used to access that expertise may not be available. In these deliberations I ask him to give special consideration to those families.

I welcome Part three of the Bill dealing with the European Health Insurance Card, EHIC, scheme and I do this for two reasons. It demonstrates the commitment that this Government has to ensure the rights of citizens of Northern Ireland and there are some 632,000 holders of the EHIC scheme. By putting in place provisions for us to protect their rights, we are showing good faith and we are expecting a reciprocal response from the United Kingdom.

I also refer to Part 7 which deals with education. There are 1,500 students studying in the UK and the elements of these amendments to the Student Support Act 2011, the main piece of legislation which deals with the financial supports for third level students, are crucially important and must be put in place if there is a no-deal scenario.

Part 15 of the Bill is also very important as it deals with the protection of employees and the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Act. This will protect many Irish workers who work here for UK companies. We have heard too many times in this House of the impact of the insolvency arrangements regarding Debenhams workers who have been treated in the disgraceful way. We can only imagine what it would be like if a UK company was trading from the UK and if those employees were not only to not benefit from the collective agreement but were also not to benefit from the safeguard of the employers insolvency scheme. I am very pleased that protection is being put in place in this omnibus Bill.

I ask the Minister also, and the I take him at his word on this, to consider amendments and changes such as the significance of different arrangements in how Irish and UK law treats preferential creditors in insolvency situations. That is a matter I believe we have yet to resolve in this Bill and it is perhaps one that we can address on Committee Stage.

Part 16 deals with extradition. If I said this Bill was devised more in sadness than in anger then this is probably one of the saddest parts of the Bill. We have only started to see the benefits arising from the European arrest warrant. We have only started to see how routine arrangements and requests between different European Union countries can be dealt with so that we can tackle crime. Instead, we are being forced, because of the decision of the British Government, not to engage in an agreement and to return to a Council of Europe convention from 1957. This would essentially put extradition back in the hands of diplomats rather than being in a judicial process.

I say that meaning no disrespect to our colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs. However, extradition should not be a matter which is subject to political influence. We have seen in the past that lobbying is possible and representations can be made to the political system when it is done through that process. I would have concerns about the way we deal with dissident republicans, those who want to undermine the Good Friday Agreement and those who might want to engage in human trafficking. The overwhelming majority of requests to this country for European arrest warrants are from the UK. It is a real sadness that we have to reach back to 1957 but there are plenty of things about this Brexit debate that reach back to 1957.

Part 21 relates to the European Union (Construction Products) Regulations 2013, with which I was not familiar, which give the local authority, Dublin City Council, responsibility for monitoring such products. I have had reassurances from Dublin City Council on this matter but in all cases where we give local authorities responsibility we should also make sure that we give them resources. Whatever arrangements are put in place, I ask the Minister to support the local authorities in giving them that role.

I wish the Minister the best of luck, not in the passing of this Bill but in the work he and the Government have done to secure a deal. Let us hope we will never have to use the provisions of this Bill. Let us hope we can tear it up and make a deal that will benefit the people of this entire island.

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