Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I welcome everybody back to the Seanad. I hope we have a very productive session. I commend everyone who has worked on the restoration project. We are all delighted to be back in here. Many of us believed we would not be back considering how long the works were to take. It is fantastic to be back. I am particularly happy that the Leader is here with us and has not taken an extended holiday to the Rugby World Cup in Japan like his colleagues have. I am glad he is here for the opening of business. It is great to see him.

It is now 37 days until 31 October. Most of the media commentary and political discourse over recent months has been about Brexit, Boris and the budget. Today's UK Supreme Court judgment was unanimous. It is very striking. It has been confirmed that Westminster is meeting tomorrow to discuss the ramifications of the judgment. We all hope in this House that some common sense will prevail across the UK parties and that they will focus on what the majority have already said about preventing a hard and disorderly Brexit on 31 October. While common sense has not been in abundance in the United Kingdom of late, it is crucial that Ireland not become a casualty of any premature, knee-jerk political reactions. There has been a sense for quite some time that Ireland has not been ready for a hard Brexit and that there has been an all-right-on-the-night attitude seeping in. This needs to change rapidly. There were mixed messages last week after the UK Prime Minister visited Dublin.There were descriptions of a positive mood music at the start of the week but these were dampened down completely towards the end of the week. There has been some stop-start momentum building up. The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, says he is anxious to get a deal, yet he and his Government have still not produced any written papers for the EU as to how they believe the Single Market will be protected on the island of Ireland or how border checks will be prevented. He said he would rather die in a ditch than apply for an extension. We still do not know the impact of this morning’s UK Supreme Court judgment on parliamentary motions. These are not insignificant stumbling blocks. Jean-Claude Juncker made this clear when he met the UK Prime Minister at the end of last week. We all need to be wary of not falling into rhetoric and remain focused on protecting jobs, regions and trade in Ireland.

The budget, due in two weeks’ time, will be dominated by Brexit. Some commentators are calling it boring as there have been no threatening redlines or demands from Fianna Fáil that could cause instability. Our sensible and pragmatic approach annoys them and some in Fine Gael. Our party agreed to a fourth budget because of Brexit and nothing else. We put the country first and foremost.

We are all used to Senator Buttimer hitting out at Fianna Fáil regularly. He rarely stands up in the Chamber without taking a pop at our party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin. It is an interesting tactic when he knows Deputy Micheál Martin is not here to defend himself against his many spurious accusations.