Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Christmas Eve, a Brexit deal was announced and hailed as the answer to all our problems, but many people who have been in touch with me and my office disagree with this. Many people's daily lives have been affected by the fallout from Brexit. One lady was told that her car cannot be repaired because there is a problem getting parts from the UK. Her car is safe to drive but will not pass the NCT because there are diagnostic lights on the dashboard. She now has to risk driving the car to get to the shop to buy baby food with the insurance-related and legal implications for driving while not having the NCT. There is no end in sight. The next available slot in Portlaoise NCT centre is in the middle of March. Another gentleman had an accident on the way to work last weekend. His car was towed to a main dealer where he was told that it could be there for weeks because parts were in short supply. His car insurance covers car hire worth €200, which will hire a car for less than one week. He is an essential worker and will be unable to afford to hire a car if this issue drags on. In the course of making inquiries for these people, I have been told of a main dealer in Kildare who has had to strip parts from two new cars to carry out work under warranty. This is not good enough. It is incredible that it is happening.

This Government announced with great fanfare a scheme to provide funding for the training of staff to help businesses to deal with customs paperwork and I am told that the uptake has been low. We need to look at and address the reasons for this. I have spoken to lorry drivers who have contacted me because they have been stuck in queues at ports for days and have not seen their families. We have all heard of the lorry drivers queueing on the M20 in Kent in England for days.

They survived due to the kindness of the local residents who lowered food parcels containing beans, fruit and sweets from a motorway bridge. It is 2021. We can, should and must do better.

Many retailers have taken the decision to cease trading internationally, due to the mess and uncertainty around Brexit. It should not have to be like this. These issues are affecting people's daily lives. We cannot just ignore them and hope that things will get better. These are sources of worry and frustration for people and we must start addressing them. Finally, as the Minister is aware, last year customs dealt with 2 million declarations. This year they expect to deal with 20 million declarations. That is more than 50,000 per day and ten times what was dealt with previously. We must invest more if there is to be any hope of solving this mess. There is a €1 billion contingency fund and it is about time we started spending it wisely.

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