Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

It has been stated by many people here that we are still dealing with Brexit and with a failure of British politics and in Ireland we feel that pain. We have no clarity. We still have nothing resolved as to fisheries or level playing field governance. We have one deadline after another that has not been seen or met.

In fairness, this week a number of a bright shoots have appeared. We have the possibility that we may have vaccines that could provide us with some solutions as to the situation we find ourselves in as regards this pandemic. We also have had changes in American politics with the election of Joe Biden. Whatever about any other aspect of his politics, it is fair to say this is a man with a good County Louth connection in Carlingford and the Cooley Peninsula in the north of the county and he has an understanding of that area. He has shown a commitment to the Good Friday Agreement, that there can be no hardening of the Irish Border and that there is no possibility of a free trade agreement between Britain and America in the event that any of this is put in danger. This is part of the international solidarity which has been absolutely necessary. We need to ensure that it is maintained because at this point in time, if one googles Brexit, one finds results like “EU Commission realises that food supply difficulties for the North of Ireland are a real problem”, and “Another year needed to amend distribution of distribution of medicines post-Brexit”. These are incredibly worrying things at this point in time, particularly with regard to medicines as we talk about vaccinations. We have seen the dangers and the difficulties of what a Boris Johnson or a Michael Gove or whoever in Britain determines to operate from the point of view of what suits Britain and we, here, have to deal with that.

I welcome some of the moves of the Government and the fact that we now have a shared island unit and that the Taoiseach has said that he will be pushing forward with projects such as the Narrow Water Bridge, the A5 and other such projects that have fallen between stools at times and have not been dealt with adequately.

I also welcome the work that has been done on Brexit readiness and that a great number of firms have already sorted themselves out as regards Revenue and customs, with EORI numbers and such requirements. We need to ensure that this is maintained and continued and that any firms that have not made preparations do so, because we do not know what type of Brexit we will be dealing with.

We are in support of this legislation, which is based on the fact that we will have a withdrawal agreement and that we will have the Irish protocol. While we now have further international solidarity, which puts pressure on the British Government to follow up on the promises and deals it has already made with regard to Ireland, we do not have complete clarity. We still have the Internal Market Bill and the fact that we have a British Government that is willing or at least promising that it will break the law to undermine some of these supports. This is utterly unacceptable. We need to ensure that we maintain international solidarity and that Britain is left in no doubt that there can be no hardening of the Border and that we will accept no moves back from those mitigations.

It is fair to state that the people of the North did not vote to leave the European Union. In the near future we could be entering a period where all of us on this island will need to make a determination. For the people of the North, it will be about staying in the European Union and leaving another failed union. Irish history tells us we cannot not trust or rely on a British Government so we need to take the power back to Ireland.

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