Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know we had plenty of time for Brexit last week and we will have another debate on Thursday to mark Europe Day, but I would like to speak about Brexit again in the context of Boris Johnson's latest pronouncement. He said during his visit to the US that the customs partnership is a crazy plan because it will create a whole new web of bureaucracy. He has gone against his own Prime Minister on this issue. Of course, he has not offered a different plan other than to come up with what has been termed the "Boris border". This type of seamless and frictionless border has not been tested because it does not exist anywhere in the world. We know this because a month ago, it was confirmed in a House of Commons report that no technological solutions, other than the theoretical, are available anywhere in the world to keep the Irish Border open if Britain leaves the customs union and the Single Market. The enterprise secretary in Westminster has said that thousands of jobs will be lost if Britain does not sign up to one or the other because of the extent of Britain's reliance on frictionless trade with the EU.

I thank the Leader for organising statements on corporate manslaughter. I propose to circulate to Members a letter from the Irish Haemophilia Society on this issue. This is relevant because the hepatitis C scandal is being seen again in a new guise. Neither the hepatitis C scandal nor the CervicalCheck cancer issue that is now before us can be attributed to mismanagement alone. Once more, the health service has covered things up by not informing people when they should have been informed. That is what happened 27 years ago in the hepatitis C case, which resulted in two tribunals, more inquires and recommendations. In 2006, the Law Reform Commission recommended that a corporate manslaughter Bill should be introduced to ensure people who fail to act are held to account, not by losing their jobs, resigning or going off with their pensions, but by going to jail for up to 12 years. Such a Bill has not been passed in this House, however. There are times when we do statements. Maybe the next legislation we debate should be the Committee Stage of the Corporate Manslaughter (No. 2) Bill 2016. I will raise this again during the statements on corporate manslaughter. Why are we talking about investigations by commissions of inquiry? Such investigations should follow criminal investigations and interviews carried out by the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Garda. We can put in place the systems that are required after that. People have died as a result of mismanagement. We were told in this House less than two years ago that there was no need for the Corporate Manslaughter (No. 2) Bill 2016 because people could go to jail under existing legislation. That can be tested now on foot of a Garda investigation, rather than an investigation set up by this House or the other House.