Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My comments will be on Brexit but, first, I wish to say with respect to the rule of law that I am disappointed with the comments from the Taoiseach. He talked about continuing to hold member states to account in upholding the Union's values. I do not see evidence of continuing work to uphold the European Union values with regard to member states.

Is it the view of the Taoiseach and the Government that the continued discrimination against LGBTI people and minorities by some member states and the creation of so-called LGBTI-free zones constitute upholding European Union values? Do interference with the independence of the judiciary, the suppression of free media and the silencing of civil society organisations in parts of the European Union by member states constitute upholding European Union values? They do not. It is important that we stand with the LGBTI community, the judiciary, a free media and civil society. We cannot pretend to ourselves that we are continuing to uphold European Union values here, because we are not.

There has been an erosion of them for years now while European Union funding continues to flow into these countries. We need to make a stand and not kid ourselves that work has been ongoing on this and that we can continue to do it. What has been happening to date is not acceptable.

We can all see clearly now that the lies on which Brexit was based are unravelling and are being exposed. We have seen the comments from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility in the UK. It has forecast that Brexit will cost the UK economy 4% of GDP in the event of a deal and that is more damage than Covid has done to its economy. In the event of no deal, the UK will be looking at a cost of 6% of GDP to the economy. The National Audit Office in the UK has assessed its preparations for Brexit and it has painted a very bleak picture of widespread disruption as a result of the failure of its government to prepare adequately for new border controls. It also stated that it believes that new regulatory controls for goods crossing to Northern Ireland from the UK will not be ready for 1 January.

One of the main tenets that the proponents of Brexit in the UK talked about is that they could get great trade deals around the world to increase UK trade outside of the European Union. We know that 50% of UK trade is with the European Union and we also know that in key markets outside the EU, including America, China, South Korea and India, that the UK is losing market share and the value of its exports is in decline.

We also know that the UK seems intent on continuing to break international law. It has not withdrawn the Internal Markets Bill. More recently, the UK Government seems intent on bringing forward the new taxation Bill with clauses which will undermine sections of the Northern Ireland protocol. The EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, correctly commented today that if this goes ahead it will put the negotiations into crisis. I would have welcomed a direct comment from the Taoiseach on that. It is an omission that he has not.

I wish to make two points on the threat of no deal on fisheries and what that could do in terms of the thousands of Irish jobs that are reliant on continued access to UK waters. First, we need to be very conscious of the amount of jobs that are potentially at stake. We are looking at approximately 16,000 jobs in the industry that could be lost. We could also be looking at conflict at sea. The operational capacity of the Naval Service is not what it should be, which is quite concerning in terms of Brexit. We also need to be mindful that the UK has netted more than €1 billion worth of additional fish in the past ten years because of its access to the EU fisheries policy. We also know that its fleet does not have sufficient capacity to catch all the fish in UK waters. The UK is very reliant on exports. Some 80% of scallops, squid, sole and ray caught by UK vessels are exported to the European Union. The UK does not hold all the cards in these talks. It is very important that Ireland and the European Union hold fast in the negotiations and that we agree a common approach on fisheries and on measures to conserve fish stocks in the future.

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