Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to go along with that. Perhaps the Acting Chairman might indicate to me.

At the outset, I thank the Tánaiste for his attendance and for his continuing commitment to getting this process right. If it is difficult to make these points in eight minutes, it is more difficult in three but I will try. At the civic engagement yesterday, I was chatting to somebody about how the vast majority of the population of Europe now do not remember the Second World War, its horrors and all that went with it. That is a huge part of our difficulty. They do not see the need for this ongoing European peace project. That is particularly the case in the UK, though there are elements of it right across Europe. That is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy caused by a lack of memory. God knows it is difficult to get over that, but it is a problem.

I am happy that the common travel area is sorted and we have received a commitment on the backstop. I will read one sentence from paragraph 49 of the December agreement. It states, "In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement." That is a very unambiguous commitment. Similarly, Prime Minister Theresa May in March 2018 stated that the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 must be protected in all its parts. Those commitments have been achieved. That is a huge achievement on the part of our diplomatic service, our permanent Civil Service and the Government. Two Governments, the last one and the current one, can take a bow for that. It is an enormous achievement, which I would love to discuss further.

I agree with the Tánaiste that the obvious preference is to achieve a comprehensive agreement that prevents the backstop, that is, one that removes the need for it. That is what we all want to achieve. The Tánaiste mentioned the customs union in that regard, and the need to ensure there are no customs barriers on the Border. I agree fully. I am sure that as a former Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, he will have no difficulty with the view that we also need an agreement on alignment of standards. We need to prevent a situation where substandard food or improperly produced beef could come into our islands and could use that as a way of getting into the EU. It is important that we have an alignment of standards, as well as no customs duties.

In deference to the Acting Chairman's ambition to accommodate all the speakers, I will conclude by saying to the Tánaiste on behalf of the people of the Border area in Cavan and Monaghan that this is life-and-death stuff. The whole society depends on this. We want him to hold the line right up to the end. There must be no flinching on the hard Border, and if it comes to it, no matter what it takes, we want him to hold the line.