Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to talk about the importance of this particular issue, having listened carefully to the previous speeches. We can all learn. What is of importance is not how long or short our contribution is. However, we must recognise one point. We are coming to the final stages of the Brexit issue. Nigel Farage launched the campaign a long time ago. He spent 20 years of his life in the European Parliament, taking a salary from it, while undermining the concepts of European co-operation and the EU. He did so very successfully. Not only did he do that, but he also managed to convince the people of the UK that this was the way to go. He misled the people of the UK. His propaganda was very potent, available, forceful and attractive to people who had a doubt.

The EU is not always perfect. We have had reason to show concern on numerous occasions, but we have also had many examples that prove the success of the Union, in particular from this country's point of view. Many situations have arisen whereby membership of the Union meant we were in a position of solidarity, among equals, capable of participating in the debate, as opposed to waiting until the debate was over and attempting to influence it afterwards. The European Community has been very effective in terms of providing peace in Europe and alleviating starvation. Let us not forget that the original idea was to prevent starvation in the aftermath of the Second World War. It did so very successfully.

The EU continues to operate in a very meaningful way, but most of all in recent times when the Union was under threat. I always made the comparison with the United States. When the UK wanted to go off in its own direction and make Britain great again, it was reminiscent of other struggles we have heard of along the same lines. I was worried about it at the time, as was everybody else in this House. The fact of the matter is this: there is more to be gained from strength and solidarity than there is from the kind of dissent Europe suffered from in the past.

Deputy Jim O'Callaghan made a very interesting speech that was subsequently criticised. The sad part is that we do not have longer to debate subjects of this nature at greater depth and length. Suffice it to say, he made comparisons with the renationalisation, the polarisation of thinking across Europe, in the UK and in some other European countries. I had occasion to meet a delegation from another European country in the past year when its opposition to immigration and asylum seekers was voiced. I reminded them of a time when they themselves were asylum seekers and were in need of help, which they got in this country. Even though we did not have much to give, we shared it. It is interesting that after so many years of recent freedom, some people decided to assert themselves and to reject all others who are in the position they were in. That is a dangerous route to go, hence the polarisation to which the Deputy referred.

He also referred to the US as being in a dangerous situation. He is absolutely right, because the polarisation of opinion there has been ongoing for some years. There was a number of explosions and attacks on people, including racist attacks, but nothing was done about it. These things cannot go on for ever, but they are not good. Somebody, sometime, somewhere will pay a price. Like others said, the recent electoral developments in the US are to be welcomed by democrats everywhere and all freedom seeking people. Whether they can deliver or not remains to be seen. Recent US Administrations have been hampered by a lack of a majority in either House. Nothing happens in such a situation, hence the need for reform of the system there.

To return to the subject matter of this debate, we have been well-served by the Minister and his colleagues in this Government and the previous Government. We have held the line very well. The merit in that has been shown by the degree to which our colleagues in the EU have backed us up. They have delivered. They have stood up for us, which is the litmus test, and they will continue to do so, because it is in the interests of all of us remaining member states of the European Union. We have to cease looking at ourselves as being outside the European Union. We are part of the European Union and we must accept that.

I am one of the first people in this country to suggest that our response to Brexit, over which we have no control, was that the island of Ireland should be treated as part of the Single Market and the customs union. I thought it was a good idea at the time, and it is still a good idea and I hope it will prevail.

Ironically, another speaker mentioned that we can benefit from the situation now developing. Two things can happen. We will need to depend on our colleagues in Northern Ireland and they on us to a greater extent than we think possible at this stage. Inevitably, we will be interdependent with another state that we have not been interdependent with before. That situation will be good for relations on this island, good for putting the past behind us and good for the development of good relations in the future. It is an equally good development for economic recovery and advancement, and strength arising therefrom.

We need to bear something else in mind in the last critical days of the negotiations that are taking place. Our friends in the UK are famous for their last-minute submissions and we need to be watchful for the door being slammed at a particular stage when it is more advantageous to them than it is to us in this country or in the rest of the European Union. We need to be careful not to be phased by an ultimatum presented at the end. We need to live on the island of Ireland thereafter along with our Northern colleagues. It is up to us to do the best we can in the circumstances opening up to us.

Irrespective of what happens, we need to continue to be robustly involved in the European Union. I am not as convinced as others are regarding the need to have a relationship with the UK. Yes, we do, and it is up to the UK to continue that relationship. We did not force anybody out of the European Union, nor should or would we and nor are we likely to in the future. It remains a matter for our colleagues across the water to come to the conclusion that it is in the interests of Ireland, the UK and the European Union to reach an amicable arrangement that does not undermine one or the other.

We did not create the situation before us now. It was a fait accomplifrom the time the UK voted. Incidentally, the moral lesson from all that is this. If people do not respond to whatever is laid out before them, no matter how unrealistic it may be or how unattainable it may appear at the time, a result ensues, and that result might not always be what we want. The referendum in the UK went the way it did because nobody else objected to any great extent and it happened. I hope we will reach a satisfactory conclusion.

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