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

I am sharing time with Deputy O'Dowd. I welcome this Bill, although it is hard to welcome anything that arises out of such sadness of circumstances. None of the issues and legislation that we have debated concerning Brexit in the past number of years has been a positive thing. Brexit has needlessly exercised the minds and abilities of scores of civil servants, politicians and business people throughout the entire island. All of that effort was needed for what is an exercise in pointlessness and negativity. We in Ireland have no choice over what is happening and we must simply respond and continue to prepare as best we can. Whatever happens over the coming days or maybe the next fortnight, while there is the possibility of getting a deal on the future relationship, we know that come 1 January, things will change, and change utterly, for all of us on these islands and across the EU. Regardless of the breadth of this legislation and the previous Brexit omnibus Bill the Minister brought through the Houses some years ago, when I was a Senator, we can never fully prepare for the impact of Brexit, deal or no deal, because there is no such thing as a good Brexit.

The Bill before us today is timely and it addresses a number of key issues. It is an absolute credit to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, his officials and the other Ministers with whom he worked to bring it forward. Together with the previous omnibus Bill, it covers a vast array of issues affecting everyday life for people throughout the country. I am drawn to Parts 2 and 3, in particular, which deal with healthcare provision and the impact of Brexit on the common travel agreement as it applies to cross-border health services. The Government has shown a very worthy commitment to maintaining access to the European health insurance card for Irish citizens in the North. That issue received quite a bit of attention during the summer when certain people in certain parts of the Brexiteer media said that the whole negotiation process was a vengeful European plot and that our citizens in the North would not be able, for some reason, to be able to take advantage of the benefits of membership in the form of the insurance card. In fairness, the Government has stood up once again on that issue.

I have concerns in regard to access to medicines. I was both intrigued and concerned by the reply I received today from the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to a parliamentary question I submitted in this regard. It is an issue that will have to be watched continuously by officials, not just in this jurisdiction but across the Union. It is something that is concerning our British colleagues because they are net importers of medicines.

Part 11 relates to customs arrangements and calls to mind the volume of work that was carried out in recent years by the Government in recruiting customs officials and preparing Dublin Port, Dublin Airport, Rosslare Europort and so on. It is a huge and impressive achievement, particularly when compared with the continuing concerns over works at Dover, Holyhead, Pembroke and Fishguard. Last summer, when the rate of take-up of economic operators registration and identification, EORI, numbers was a cause for significant worry, the Government, working with Revenue, turned the situation around very quickly. That outcome was a credit to the collective effort of those involved. I strongly welcome the measure in last month's budget to provide grants of €9,000 to businesses to allow them to engage customs agents. The profession of customs agent is something from a different era but, sadly, we are forced to embrace it once again.

Part 13 deals with an issue that is simple but also very important to life throughout this island, namely, third-country bus services. It is vital to maintain the current level of access and continuity for simple things like getting the bus to school. Large numbers of people cross the Border every day to go to school, third level education or work. When this pandemic lifts and tourists return, there will once again be lots of people who come to tour the entirety of this island, often in conjunction with a tour of the neighbouring island, and they will be assisted by the good work of our tour operators. We all know people who have, perhaps more in hope than anything else, already booked their rail and sail tickets or are planning to take the old-fashioned National Express route home for Christmas. We hope they make it but that is a discussion for another time and with another Minister.

As we reflect on where we are now in the Brexit process, we may recall the many times when one would wake up and think it was Groundhog Day, with yet another stand-off between the negotiators or, alternatively, a thawing of relations and a coming together between Michel Barnier and one of the four negotiators on the British side. As we face into the next couple of days and whatever comes next, the important thing is that there is a desire to do a deal. There certainly is a desire to do a deal on the part of everyone in this Chamber, as there is on the part of everyone across the EU. We must hope that the same desire is reflected in the position of our British colleagues. The need for a deal is absolute. The entire European Union needs it, including Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and every other member state. However, if we look at the economic forecast from the European Commission, the country that needs a deal the most is the United Kingdom, which is the country that brought this on itself. A no-deal Brexit will hurt everybody but the country that will suffer the most from it is the country that brought it about.

That brings me to the parallel, not negotiation but discussion, both in the joint implementation committee and, of course, on the Internal Market Bill that has been referred to by a number of Members already. The welcome moves in the House of Lords this week to amend that Bill and the concerning comments by the British Government relating to that are a matter perhaps for discussion on another day.

We will leave it to the continuing solidarity from our European colleagues to make sure that the withdrawal agreement, that binding international treaty, is implemented fully by both the European Union and the United Kingdom. That is our responsibility because everything about Brexit is not only about choices, it is about responsibilities. It is about meeting one's responsibilities. It is about the Government's responsibility to meet the needs and the rights of the citizens of this island and of this State. Every step of the way, the Government has proven its ability to do that. When the citizens of Ireland looked in despair at the result of the referendum, they followed up every day with looks of relief at seeing the likes of Deputy Coveney, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, who understands their concerns and is making sure that we can deliver the least worst Brexit for the people of Ireland.

We now must ask what the relationship between Ireland and the UK will be as well as what that between the UK and the EU will be. While we talk about the negotiations and people get mixed up on the trade aspect of the future relationship, geography will not change. The UK has left the EU - that may become official on 1 January - but it cannot leave Europe. They are not leaving Europe. The UK will still be a part of the Council of Europe, of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, and of so many other supranational and intergovernmental bodies. Equally, the relationship between the UK and the EU will still be so vitally important. There is so much we have in common. There are so many interests, both in this neighbourhood and around the world, that the EU and the UK share as progressive western liberal democracies. Many have referenced the elections in America over the past week and they look at the opportunity. Many people, quite rightly, over recent days following the Taoiseach's phone call, have said that Ireland will be the gateway into Europe for the new American Administration. Whether one is from Mayo or Louth or, indeed, Wexford, everyone is rightly claiming a part of Joe Biden's ethnicity. Really, what we want to look at when we talk about the new American Administration is its approach to international relations and multilateralism.

We talk about Ireland as the bridge into the European Union for the US. Who will be the bridge for the UK into the EU going forward? This is where Ireland must stand up. We are a small member state, but we are an established member state, a respected member state, a member state that believes in the rule of law, that believes in the power of the European Union, and a member state that crucially has benefited so much from European membership. Using the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement, that agreement that successive Ministers have worked so hard to protect and implement in this jurisdiction, we use those institutions, the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, the North-South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council, and all Members of this House and, indeed, of the Upper House use the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. We need to be inventive. We need to be imaginative. We need to have the discipline and the structure so that those institutions will ensure that Ireland and the UK can continue to work together because we have that unique position. We are the only European member state that has that opportunity within the rules of the European Union.

When we have this debate - I do not know if this will be the last debate we have on Brexit before the transition period expires - we have to put out a message. There is much hard rhetoric. There are many aggressive tweets. I myself am responsible for half of them. Regardless of what happens, the UK is still our closest neighbour. We still have the responsibility of a benevolent relationship. There are still 48% of people in the UK who are being dragged out of the European Union against their will, be they in Scotland, northern England, Northern Ireland, the rest of England or Wales, and we must leave a message for them: "The light is on. You are always welcome back."

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