Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will attempt to get everything in in the three minutes but the Cathaoirleach will forgive me if I go a minute or two over.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, for her engaging address to the Seanad. I also thank the other members of the committee and other Senators present for their kind words which are embarrassing and unnecessary. I commend the entire committee membership and substitutes for their proactive approach to this body of work over the past few months.

As regards a few of the specific issues that were raised, I just have to make a small point. Senator Paul Daly will forgive me. To pick up on the issue of mushrooms, it is worth noting that the Government has made available €150 million worth of low-interest loans to the industry. Some €2.6 million has been provided to Bord Bia to allow for market diversification and a €5.4 million capital investment has been made by the Government in horticulture, particularly regarding the mushroom industry.

It is a little unhelpful to compare the situation of Spain, Gibraltar and the UK with the Good Friday Agreement, which is an internationally binding legal agreement. We spent a great deal of time rightly focusing on this document and it is the cornerstone of Anglo-Irish relations going forward. Something on which we must reflect is that there is a reason it is in the top three issues for both the UK and the EU going into the negotiation process.

I welcome the forthright response of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, to the disappointing announcement by the British Minister, Mr. Gove, on the UK's decision to withdraw from the 1964 London Agreement on fisheries. I suppose that opens up a wider issue on fisheries but also Anglo-Irish relations in general in the future. We find ourselves in a unique situation. Ireland is obviously, as Senator Paul Daly stated, the most affected of the member states, including the UK, by Brexit. The further east one goes, the less Brexit becomes an issue and it becomes all about Russia, the migrant crisis or the refugee crisis. We are in that unique position that we can institutionally lean on and discuss with the UK where other member states cannot, through the British-Irish Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. I would call on the Minister of State, as we mentioned in the report, to take back to the Government that these meetings need to become more regularised and more formalised. Prior to 1973, British and Irish diplomats, officials and Ministers met sporadically. Now they meet at least once a month at the European Council or Council of Ministers. We need to see the British-Irish Ministerial Council meeting once a month. We need to see the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly meeting more often and we need to see greater interaction between parliamentarians from Westminster, the Oireachtas and all the devolved Administrations.

I suppose a disappointing aspect is that the committee is being disbanded. It is being stood down. The document has been laid before the House. However, that cannot stop the discussion about Brexit in this House or in the wider Oireachtas in the future. I call on the Minister of State to make it her business after the recess to commit to coming back to the Seanad to take statements on each European Council and to take regular updates on the negotiating process. That is something we would all welcome. We are not all members of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement or the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence. We can use this Chamber for its rightful purpose.

Senator Mulherin mentioned a potential Irish exit and what the cost might be. The up-front cost might be, I suppose, €10 billion compared with the bill that has been issued of €100 billion to the UK but the cost is far greater for a smaller county than just the initial divorce bill. The cost is our membership of the European Union which gives us access to the wider world. It allows us, a small peripheral island country, to be part of one of the largest economic trading blocs in the world. It allows us to be powerful. It allows us a seat at the top table, at the G20 and at the G8. It allows us to be able to look to entities such as Germany, France, Spain and Poland, saying they are our equals.

One of the phrases the Minister of State used is that Ireland is often seen as "an island, behind an island". It is a phrase that absolutely cuts the marrow because that is one of the exact phrases used by the then EEC to dismiss the original Irish application to join the ECC in the early 1960s. Ireland could never be considered for joining the European project initially because the UK did not want to. Now we are at a point where the UK, for whatever reasons, has made the decision to leave the greatest peace project in the history of humanity. We are no longer an island behind an island. We are an established equal member of the European Union. Our future is at the heart of that Union and we must commit to that Union in the strongest manner possible, consistently engaging with other member states and consistently engaging with the wider world and, indeed, the United Kingdom, as part of that Union.

I commend this report to the House. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his indulgence and I wish the Minister of State and the entire Government all the very best over the coming weeks.