Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Commissioner Hogan to the House. His contribution today was important. It is timely for the inherent contradictions and irreconcilable aims being pursued by the Tory Party Government in Britain to be called out for what they are. We face an alliance of the likes of Mr. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mr. Michael Gove, Mr. Boris Johnson and Mr. Liam Fox telling the British public that there is some great global trading status for Britain that is compatible with a continuation of its access to the European markets on an unrestricted basis. This is a falsehood. In Westminster today there is the beginning of the dawning of reality as to where Britain's real interests and potential choices are to be made.

The Commissioner set out in welcome and stark terms the fact that by June - only eight or so weeks away - the issue will effectively have to be resolved. Britain's ambivalence and ambiguity on these fundamental matters must be resolved one way or the other. The Commissioner mentioned briefly what Mr. Rees-Mogg said about Ireland and some Members may not have heard his precise comments. Effectively, he argued that if there is no deal of the kind he wants, he would impose 70% tariffs on Irish beef and bankrupt Ireland.That was the threat made. We have to remember that Michael Gove spoke and wrote in the most trenchant terms against the Good Friday Agreement. He said it was a betrayal of the unionist position and the British position in Northern Ireland. We have to realise that we are dealing with people who are in a minority in Britain, but as with our current Government, sometimes vocal minorities can stamp their feet and get their way. I make this point in a different context but Mr. Hogan knows what I am talking about. We are, however, coming to the moment of truth.

Senator Richmond has made the point, as has the Commissioner, that Ireland must take a long hard look at our relationship with Europe. I believe that the Hanseatic League of the Nordic and Baltic states and the other states that are less popular at the moment - the Visegrad Group - and Austria and Italy are not ad idemwith the French desire to create a Berlin-Paris axis where those two countries can bestride the world. Although Mr. Hogan has spoken about solidarity and about Ireland perhaps taking another look at our security, I would warn against trying to revise our constitutional ban around participation in EU defence. This would be a lost cause and it would be a step too far.

I thank the Mr. Hogan for his frank words. I hope that other people in other places are heeding them and realising that their bluff cannot go on indefinitely.