Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the matter of the Brexit adjustment reserve, I said what I have said. We have been working closely with the European Commission to express our concerns about Brexit, which are well known. The fund was devised by Ireland and Belgium, although I am certain we will not be the only countries to avail of it. I think, however, that we should be pretty satisfied when the proposal comes through but that will be in addition to provision we have made ourselves.

Regarding traffic at Dublin Port, there is a contingency traffic management plan, and there have been some references in the media in that regard. I will, however, get a copy sent out to the Deputies. The plan involves the various stakeholders coming together. Clearly, though, there can be difficulties sometimes when it is a matter of dealing with private limited companies, as they are not public companies. A great deal of work has been done, however, and we are hoping these types of contingency measures will not be needed to the extent we have been talking about. They must be created, however.

Part of this context is that a great deal of the customs checks which will be done will be paper-based. When I say paper-based, I mean online. Documentary is a better term, I suppose. It will only be necessary in a minority of cases for officials to check products. In the vast majority of cases, the lorry drivers will get a green light on the app and will just drive out of the port without doing anything, because the proper checks will already have been done. If there are concerns, however, and Revenue, the Department of Health and-or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have reason to check particular shipments, they will do that and the lorry driver will get a red light.

For anybody listening, regarding shipping capacity, the new services which have started to offer direct links to the Continent are doing really well and have a high level of reservations. For any shipping companies thinking of starting new services between Ireland and the Continent, those new services have been really successful so far and have a large number of bookings. We strongly encourage people in that industry to look at this possibility. As I said earlier, I met some significant traders in this country who are completely abandoning the land bridge. Despite the direct service to Dunkirk, for example, in theory being significantly longer, the certainty and the lack of bureaucracy and traffic that route offers certainly means a great deal to traders. Anyone who has driven across the land bridge, perhaps returning from a vacation, will know it is possible to be stuck in traffic on some of the roads through Britain. More and more traders, therefore, will now look favourably on the new routes.

Turning to the issue of the rule of law, there should be a debate on this issue in the Dáil. I said that previously, and I will try to arrange it because we need to have a strong voice in all these issues. Generally speaking, however, the adoption of the rule of law mechanism has been welcomed as a step forward in enhancing and encouraging the rule of law across Europe. We all have our part to play and it is not just going to be on this matter as there are many different mechanisms.

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