Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Following on from that, we have to look at the relevance of the budget that has recently been passed. It was said that Brexit was future proofed but a mushroom farmer or a worker in the mushroom industry has not been future proofed. A person working in the agriculture sector whose main export market is the UK has not been future proofed. A person working in the retail sector will only need to look at the roads to Newry and Belfast to see the effect on the retail sector, so that person is not future proofed.

We need to engage very quickly with our EU partners in regard to a derogation for investment and the protection of rural Ireland. In many ways there is a balance in that Dublin may possibly gain investment due to Brexit but rural Ireland will certainly lose out because its main export market is the UK. We need to engage urgently with our EU partners about a derogation or we will see a huge loss in the workforce.

While we talk about future-proofing for Brexit, we have not future-proofed for Trump, although his election will have a major impact on global growth. It would be timely to schedule the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come to the House. These are the three main areas that will have most influence on how we deal with what I believe will be a global crisis. President-elect Trump spoke about a trade war with Canada, Mexico and China, and we would be caught very badly by that. We are the piggy in the middle. We are squeezed between the EU and the United States. With regard to dealing with this as mainstream parties, we see that what is happening socially in the UK and the US is enormous. However, if we ignore what could possibly be an economic crisis that puts this country back into recession, and we do not have a debate with the relevant Ministers, we have no right to be here. Will the Acting Leader schedule a meeting with the Ministers or, if they are scheduled, will she notify us when they will come to the House?