Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is the case for Ireland and I firmly believe it is the case for the UK as well. We never wanted Brexit in the first place. As Senator Richmond mentioned, when it was expected some years ago that a referendum on Brexit would take place, the previous Government, in which I served, had many meetings to establish contingencies for various outcomes. Ironically, this country is probably better prepared for Brexit than the UK. While that is a sad commentary, it is a frank and honest assessment of the tense and febrile nature of politics in the UK at present.

As I have said, we never wanted Brexit in the first place. I recall, as I am sure everyone else does, going to bed on the night the votes were counted in the full expectation that I would wake up to a "Remain" vote. The following morning, our hopes were dashed and our worst fears were realised. Brexit in any form represents an existential threat to Ireland and to our way of life. As the Minister of State knows well, my constituency of Louth is on the front line in every sense. Peace, along with our common membership of the EU, has made all the difference. The differences between North and South are now almost entirely negligible. We could never risk a return to a hard border because the world as we know it would change beyond recognition. Before we knew it, we would be back to the bad old days.

This draft withdrawal agreement deserves our full support in this Chamber. The Minister of State deserves our full support. She deserves great credit for the work she has done in recent times to get us to the place we are at now. As others have remarked, her officials deserve considerable credit and praise as well.It is fair to say that Mr. Barnier and his team have had our backs from start to finish. They delivered what they said they would deliver. As we know, it is not over yet; far from it, but at this point the agreement represents a success from an Irish perspective, and a relative success as well from a British perspective, if we are to be objective and dispassionate about it.

My colleagues and I in the Labour Party have worked very closely with our Party of European Socialists colleagues right across Europe. It is the second largest political grouping in Europe, as Senator Richmond pointed out. We worked very hard to convince our sister party leaders, some of whom are Prime Ministers - unfortunately too few of them - of the unique threats posed to Ireland by Brexit. From day one that solidarity was evident and is reflected in this arrangement. That said, the situation in Westminster as we know only too well is extremely febrile and there is no guarantee the draft agreement will find favour with a majority in the UK Parliament. We still have the deadly dangerous prospect of a no-deal scenario and the UK crashing out of the EU. We must prepare for that scenario and I acknowledge the Government is preparing comprehensively for all scenarios that may arise.

The view of the Labour Party is that there should be a second vote because enough has changed since 2016 to justify that politically. My party leader, Deputy Howlin, spoke at the British Labour Party conference in September and in our frequent collective contact with colleagues such as Keir Starmer and others, we have sought to convince them of the merits of such an approach. It greatly troubles me that my colleagues in the British Labour Party have, unfortunately, to be charitable, an ambiguous position on the general state of affairs at the moment. We acknowledge that we have work to do as a sister party of the Labour Party in the UK to convince its members of the merits of adopting a different position.

To be straight, the British people were lied to back in 2016. The Brexiteers wild claims were never going to stack up and they have not stacked up. Now the British people have a piece of paper in front of them that they can consider. They should be allowed to decide again. Put simply, it is a fantasy for some of my colleagues in the British Labour Party to think that there is such a thing as a good Brexit, one that is good for jobs, business and investment. There is not. That is an absolute fantasy and invention. I agree with Gordon Brown who said not enough has been done and not enough space has been provided in the UK to allow people to express their views, hopes and frustrations about the direction in which Europe has gone and the general concerns that led to Brexit in the first place, that in reality had nothing to do with the operation of the European Union but something else entirely and more to do with domestic politics and the direction of the UK. We have suggested, as has Gordon Brown, a series of civic forums modelled on our own Constitutional Convention that could provide for the kind of frank, honest, open and informed discourse that might help to change societal attitudes in the UK to the EU, as has happened here in terms of difficult social questions we have had to address in recent years such as access to abortion rights and marriage equality, among others. I do not know whether it is too late for such forums to be considered but we should always remain hopeful. That would involve the possibility of delaying the triggering of Article 50, but it could help renew, unite and reconcile a very divided Britain. One way or another, regardless of how this will work out in the coming months and years, the reality is that Britain is a very divided country in many ways.

We do not want Britain to leave the EU, for many reasons. For what it is worth, we would very warmly welcome a second referendum before this horse has bolted and there are significant cohorts in our sister party in the UK who hold that view as well. However, I accept that the chances of that at this point are extremely limited. I still firmly believe Britain's historical destiny should be at the heart of the European project, helping to shape the future of Europe, informed by what I describe as the best characteristics of our friends and cousins across the water that we all associate with the best of Britishness, if I can call it that. I refer to that innate decency, sense of fairness and sense of fair play. Unfortunately though, at this moment we face nothing short of a tragedy. It is a tragedy for the British people who are staring over the cliff edge of damaging their relationship with the European Union, driving down the rights of working people, driving down business and investment, jeopardising some of the very important key wins that we have secured collectively across the European Union and via our membership of the European Union over the past 40 plus years. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and give her the credit and praise to which she is entitled personally and collectively on behalf of her Government colleagues and officials for getting us to this point at a very difficult time in our history.