Seanad debates

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

UK Referendum on EU Membership: Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of Joe O'ReillyJoe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I commend and applaud his very sure-footed and experienced handling of this issue. He is doing a great job. All of his professional and political experience is coming to bear on the way he is dealing with it. That is very clear.

I agree with Senator Leyden in that I believe there is a compelling case for a central position for this country in the negotiations. I know that the Minister will be attempting to achieve that. It would be interesting if he elucidates in his reply the various strategies he sees to keep Ireland central to the negotiating position. As the Commission team led by Mr. Michel Barnier negotiates, it is critical that it has an acute awareness of the special unique position of Ireland, that it is central, that there is visible evidence of it and that there is a direct link with the Minister at all times to ensure that the Irish case is strong. I agree with that and I believe it is very necessary.

I take the Minister's point that the Prime Minister, Theresa May, has outlined a hard Brexit or has effectively said that Brexit means Brexit in her party conference speech the other day. I would be interested to hear the Minister's comments on that. I still cling to the hope that ultimately the UK will want free trade, free movement of services and to maintain all the economic advantages of the EU.I would like to believe we could end up with something approaching the Norwegian model, that Britain would get some concessions on immigration, which I know is a red line issue, and that there would be an emergency clause to deal with specific situations but that essentially we would maintain the status quoon many levels. That has to be the Irish ambition. We should seek to ensure that Ireland has a central position in the negotiating team and that our interests would be paramount and be reflected in the negotiations. We should be going for Brexit "lite" in so far as we can influence that outcome. We should be softening the EU negotiating position.

It is critical that we maintain a "unified State" post-Brexit in the sense that we keep the soft Border, we keep the free movement of goods, services and people North and South, that we have immigration controls on all-Ireland basis, that we have a workable model of effectively a united country and that we would not have a cordoning off. A point that the Minister should make repeatedly, and I know he will be doing it, is that the people of Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU. That should be reflected in the dialogue of the negotiations. That is a critical point that merits inclusion. We can achieve a situation where Ireland keeps the natural unity and does not go back to the hard Border. That would have security implications and would raise a number of tensions. I do not have to lecture anybody in this House on the negative implications of going back to a hard Border.

Unfortunately, it would be remiss of me not to mention the immediate impact of Brexit. The mushroom industry is in crisis. The fall in sterling and the prognosis that it will remain low into the foreseeable future is causing great difficulties. This presents huge challenges for our beef, dairy, pig meat and mushrooms exports and a number of these industries are on the brink of great upheaval. The tourism industry will be greatly weakened as the attractiveness of Ireland as a location for the UK tourist will decline considerably. These are the immediately impacts of Brexit.

On the upside, I was impressed by the way the IDA grasped this opportunity and I understand it has made contact with 1,400 companies internationally that might have located in the UK but now could be persuaded to think of Ireland. I would like to the assured that there will be vigorous and aggressive efforts, in parallel with maintaining our central position in the negotiations and maintaining unity of the country, to attract industry and the financial services to this country. The effort should be concentrated in the Border areas that will suffer greatly from the sterling factor. I think we have to grasp that opportunity and I would like to hear the Minister response to these points in his reply.

The big challenge is to keep Ireland central to the process, to ensure there is a soft Border, to ensure the greatest possible level of normality, to deal with the sectors, which are under immediate threat, in the upcoming budget and to cushion those sectors and to grasp the possible opportunity for inward investment.

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