Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish my colleague, Senator Buttimer, all the best and congratulate him on his great news. Last week Senator Craughwell, Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe and myself visited the German Parliament to discuss the issues of Brexit and the European Union. We met with the Parliament's leader, the finance committee, the interior Minister and the education committee. Of course Brexit was the big issue. The German finance committee had met with the English finance committee two weeks previously. It said that there had been no proper planning on the part of the English finance committee for leaving the EU with regard to banking. The British representatives had said that, when the UK left, it would not pay in respect of commitments given to the EU for the period to 2020. The German finance committee said that everything was up in the air. It said it was like a proper pantomime. All that was missing was Boris Johnson hidden in the middle of them.

Now we see Britain flexing its muscles on fishing rights. In today's paper we see that Brexit could cost the farming industry in this country €1.2 billion. According to officials, the reason is that difficulties would be compounded by the increased costs associated with implementation of border controls, particularly if there is a disadvantage from EU regulations and standards in the UK after Brexit. We are in very worrying times. Germany has said that it will stand by us, as have the other 27 member states of the European Union, but the German officials have said that they will not let Britain walk all over them. This looks very bad for Ireland when it comes to a soft border because the other European member states will not let Britain walk all over them. I call on the Minister to start asking questions of our counterparts in Britain and to ask exactly what is going on.