Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for providing us with an update. As Senator Craughwell stated, the Minister of State has been very generous with her time, as has been the Tánaiste. I join the Acting Chairman, Senator Wilson, in expressing good wishes to Senator Ned O'Sullivan on his elevation to the position of Fianna Fáil spokesperson on foreign affairs. I value the Senator's contributions, particularly in the past 18 months when he has spoken on a number of key issues. I have no doubt he will make a great contribution to this issue.

The Minister of State summed up the position in a most succinct way. Ireland did not ask for Brexit. We deeply regret the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union and we believe all parties will be diminished as a result. The withdrawal agreement, and the associated political framework published in the last number of hours, are what they are, however, and I would struggle to describe this as a good deal. As a passionate pro-European who strongly believes in the Anglo-Irish relationship, there can be no good deal and there is no such thing as a good Brexit. This is, however, the least worst option. It is a sensible deal that will allow for the orderly exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Most important, it protects the Good Friday Agreement and ensures we have a formula to guarantee the fragile peace on this island, which is just 20 years old.

The publication of the deal and the agreement reached on it by the British Cabinet is no small achievement. We look forward to Sunday when the European Council will give its approval to the agreement. What it has taken to get us to this stage is remarkable. As previous speakers noted, it is a reflection of the remarkable efforts made by the Minister of State, her predecessor, Deputy Dara Murphy, the Taoiseach, an iarThaoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Simon Coveney, and the former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charlie Flanagan. This has also been one of the most exemplary performances of our diplomatic corps in the short history of the State. In the past two and a half years, more than 2,500 meetings have been held on Brexit at a political and diplomatic level in every member state capital and beyond. It is a commendation of those efforts that we have achieved an agreement that fully reflects the Irish position. We have taken a sensible position that can make this deal work best for Ireland, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and the EU as a whole.

I also commend the level of contingency planning that has been made by the Government. This is an area that has not been highlighted enough. Contrary to some of the claims made by Senator Ned O'Sullivan, the Government's first contingency meeting on Brexit took place in 2014, a full two and a half years before the referendum. I have been lucky to sit in on the most recent meetings of the Brexit stakeholders forum, of which there have been 15 since the referendum. The detailed analyses provided by Bord Bia, Tourism Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, as well as the statistic revealed by IBEC this morning that 85% of chief executives have engaged in the process, perhaps paint a truer picture which reflects exactly where we are on Brexit. We should bear in mind that Brexit has not happened yet. When the deal goes through and we enter the transition period, I hope the preparation work will move to another level. We should also bear in mind what the next steps are and accept in good faith the agreement signed by the British Prime Minister and ratified by her Cabinet, which will, I am sure, be endorsed by the European Council on Sunday.

To address the process, our responsibility this afternoon is to pass this motion, which was passed almost unanimously by the other House last night. I am greatly disappointed that nine Deputies took it upon themselves to oppose the motion. While this was not sufficient to force a vote, it is interesting to note that the Deputies in question cited every issue under the sun to oppose the agreement, while ignoring the fact the deal will get us through a very difficult patch and is an achievement for all parties concerned. As Members of the Upper House, Senators must also decide on this motion. I appeal for unanimous support for it. In light of the contributions of previous speakers and based on my engagement with Senators over the past 18 months in this House and at meetings of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, I have no doubt we will achieve that.

Many people have ignored the EU process in respect of Brexit, with much of the attention focused on Westminster. Not a day passes without a strategic leak that has been published in a British newspaper, be it theFinancial Times, The Timesof London or The Daily Telegraph, being seized upon by certain elements of the Irish body politic or Fourth Estate, which are always the first to say the deal is dead in the water. Just last week, the same people said Prime Minister May had only 24 hours left in office. The threatened letters have not come, the Prime Minister is still in place and we must accept in good faith that she will bring the withdrawal agreement through Westminster and, in turn, that we will be able to bring it through the European channels. This is all about controlling the controllables. Following the summit on Sunday, the European Council will send the agreement to the European Parliament for assent and Guy Verhofstadt will bring it through the European legislative process. It will then be voted on at European level on 12 and 13 March 2019 when I hope it will be passed.

Members have a responsibility to look to our respective partners in the European Parliament, whether the Party of European Socialists, PES, of which the Labour Party is a member, the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, GUE-NGL, of which Sinn Féin is a member, or the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE, of which Fianna Fáil is a member, to ensure the agreement secures the widest possible support in the European Parliament and European Council of Heads of State. We should use our ties to Westminster through sister parties. While Fine Gael does not have a British sister party, the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil do. Sinn Féin also has a voice in Westminster but I will not go back over the argument as to whether its seven MPs should take their seats because that point is probably moot. Senator Ó Donnghaile and his party colleagues know I have a strong opinion on the issue. We have had that discussion, however, and we will leave it at this stage. Senators may have friends in Westminster, political, personal or otherwise, especially among Labour Party MPs who have not been vocal or perhaps Liberal Democrats or Scottish Nationalist Party MPs who are not exactly sure what to think. Let us be realistic. We have a deal on the table. While it is not a deal I like, I accept it and fully appreciate that it is not only the best deal on offer but the only deal on offer. The alternative, for Britain to crash out of the European Union without a deal on 30 March 2019, is so biblically disastrous that it does not bear thinking about for those who like to get at least eight hours' sleep at night, although, as politicians, we get more like four hours' sleep.

This deal is what must be put before the people because there is no chance of a better one. The six tests will never be met. I fear a second referendum, if one were to come about, would simply give a mandate for a stronger leave position and stronger no deal scenario. The deal is what the EU and British sides have put on the table and we can use it to go forward. The future political declaration, produced by the European Commission today, gives us an insight into what can be achieved in the 16 months until December 2020. Notwithstanding some of the Neanderthal criticisms made by some on the fringes of certain parties, as Senator O'Sullivan referenced, Ireland will demonstrate that it is not just the United Kingdom's closest neighbour but also its closest friend. We can deliver a deep and meaningful trade, customs and regulatory agreement between the EU and UK that will ensure there is no border on the island of Ireland or on the Irish Sea. It is aspirational and it will be difficult. The trade deal with Canada took nine years to achieve. We are working from a very good platform and we have a sensible leadership team in London, Brussels and Dublin. I look forward to that process coming to a close. I will travel to Belfast tomorrow morning where I will speak to members of the Ulster Farmers Union, the Confederation of British Industry, CBI, and various other organisations and point out that this deal can work. It can work for Ireland, North and South, and for the UK and EU. I fully believe that if we give this motion unanimous support today, the deal will work.