Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte a chur roibh an Aire. The Minister is very welcome. Ireland's membership of the EU since 1973 has brought about a gradual reduction of our economic and political dependence on the UK. We ended pegging the level of the punt to the pound sterling, joined the euro currency and participate in a number of criminal justice matters which the UK opted out of, all without significant disruption. Having some clear blue water between ourselves and the UK has proven to be good for Ireland in many ways but Brexit is an entirely different story. Sadly, however, the public discourse on Brexit here has often gone too far in adopting an unpleasant anti-British tone with those who voted for Brexit in the UK being portrayed as Neanderthals, anti-European and anti-Irish. Some of that is akin to the type of ugly propaganda that was put forward during the economic war, which was launched with Jonathan Swift's sardonic slogan, "Burn everything British but their coal".

We all have reason to regret the British decision on Brexit. UK voters may turn out to have been terribly mistaken in the decision they have taken, even in their own eyes, but they were always entitled to make their decision and they have to be presumed to have done so for what they thought to be honourable reasons in their own national interest. Britain is fully entitled to seek the best outcome possible from the ongoing talks, as we would in their position, but that is all the more reason for us to be grateful to the Minister, and to our diplomats and civil servants, for the extremely hard work being done in this very complex time we are living through.

The Bill before the House is to be supported. It aims to mitigate the damage that will be done to this country at the end of the transition period when we face into a new reality of Britain outside the customs union and the Single Market. The complexity of the issues facing us is clear, from even a cursory look at this Bill.

I want to make some general points about agriculture. There is nothing in the Bill that specifically relates to it but I want to put on record some of my concerns. Any time there was anything other than effective free trade between Ireland and the UK the result has been a disaster for Irish farming. During the economic war, tariffs decimated our exports, with the beef sector being particularly affected. In the absence of a trade deal being agreed, it is impossible to know what a future British Government might do. Our beef sector cannot afford to be at the mercy of any future tariff regime after a hard Brexit. Prices have already fallen substantially, with factories pricing in the prospect of a no-deal Brexit in the knowledge that the loss of British market share will allow them to push prices down even further.

There is also scope for huge damage to be done in other areas. Some 40% of our food exports go to the UK, with a vast number of jobs relying on these exports. I understand 170,000 people are employed in the food sector. I welcome, therefore, as we all do, the willingness at EU level to allow state aid rules to be eased somewhat over the coming period to allow the Government to assist Irish exporters who may be disproportionately affected due to tariff changes or currency fluctuations.

If I may be allowed to be a little reflective for a moment, I could not help thinking last evening of the irony of there being a very interesting documentary from RTÉ about the potato famine on the very same day the news emerged that we were going to be in trouble in our dependence on the British potato supply, particularly for use in our chippers.If ever one were inclined to be chipper about Brexit then that story would have given one pause. Many people would have been taken by surprise that we were so dependent with 80,000 tonnes of potatoes being imported every year. It was news to me that our chippers seem to depend in particular on British potatoes because of the sugar balance involved and their flavour. Only about 10,000 tonnes of the 300,000 or more tonnes of potatoes produced in Ireland were being used in making chips. I did hear Mr. Thomas McKeown of the IFA potato committee put an optimistic twist on the issue when he said that he hoped that this would be an opportunity for Irish growers, and we would see more homegrown produce being used by Irish businesses and in Irish homes. I also saw that a consequence of the British reciprocating, in terms of not taking in potatoes, would be that other EU markets would seek to find other markets thus leading to a fall in prices here. It is a case of out of the frying pan, as it were.

On health matters, section 4 of the Bill repeals Part 2 of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Act 2019, which included an extraordinary provision allowing the Minister to publish regulations that may, "make such adaptations and modifications to the Health Acts 1947 to 2019 or any regulations made under those Acts as the Minister considers necessary for the purpose of bringing those Acts or regulations into conformity with this Part". That provision allowed the Minister to amend the Health Acts at the stroke of a pen, which is something that I thought was almost certainly unconstitutional. If I am right in that, then I would certainly welcome the removal of that law from the Statute Book. I am curious to know what has happened here because the last Government maintained what I would have regarded as the embarrassing fiction that this sweeping provision, that I have just mentioned, was constitutional on the basis that the former Attorney General, Séamus Woulfe, now a nationally known name if ever he was not before, had signed it off. I would humbly suggest that a new broom at the Office of the Attorney General has quietly binned that rash advice that is at the back of this repeal. Perhaps I am wrong but the Minister may be in a position to confirm or clarify this matter.

On specific health matters, I am particularly concerned about a situation where for whatever reason reciprocal healthcare arrangements break down post-Brexit and how the treatment abroad scheme might operate in that instance. As we have seen, we need to be prepared to think the unthinkable and we cannot necessarily rely on the goodwill of future British Governments. If reciprocal arrangements should break down it would be preferable that Irish people requiring treatments would receive them privately in Ireland rather than in the public or private systems of another EU member state on the Continent. That was the context for my suggesting an amendment to the 2019 Act, which would have sought to address that potential risk by allowing the Minister to make contingency arrangements in the event that reciprocal arrangements failed. Unfortunately, at that time the amendment was ruled out of order. Perhaps the Minister is in a position to address this point this afternoon because I certainly do not think it is entirely clear what would happen in such circumstances.