Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I believe this is the first time I have met him in this House as Minister for Foreign Affairs. Ordinarily, I would be screaming to the high heavens as we try to rush Bills through the House but I fully understand where the Minister is coming from on this one. At the outset, I wish to pay him a compliment personally. Every time we have hit a bump in the road, he has been available to the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky News. He has been steadfast in his support for Ireland, the Republic and Ireland, Northern Ireland. He has worked with everybody to keep this ship on the road and I compliment him on that. In doing so, I also wish to compliment Michel Barnier, whose ear the Minister clearly has, as Ireland's interests are at the centre of everything he tries to do. I was most impressed by him on this issue the first time I met him about four years ago and he has remained steadfast with the Minister all of the way. The Minister is to be complimented on everything he has done on this issue. I would not say that about everything he does but in this particular case, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, he has stood for Ireland and he will be remembered for years to come.

I want to thank the Minister's officials also. The omnibus Bill that is before the House involved a massive amount of work. It is highly technical and there are more Bills to come. His officials have been doing what they do best for Ireland. Sometimes, we overlook the fact that civil servants work late into the evening to get things right. Civil servants advise Ministers and we see that even at this Stage, as the Minister is willing to listen to the Opposition with respect to a small change that needs to be made to the Bill. I want to compliment the Minister on that.

My main concern is about Part 11 of the Bill on the customs arrangements and how it will deal with the massive increase in customs controls that will be required at ports and traders' premises arising from the end of the transition period on 31 December. Skillnet Ireland, local enterprise offices and Enterprise Ireland have been running courses for Irish companies to help them manage the new regime. However, I am aware that agents responsible for processing customs declaration forms are very concerned that the small and medium-sized companies are not ready to cope with the volume of import and export declarations that will be required. Last week, the Taoiseach said that we will go from customs declarations of approximately 1.5 million to 20 million per annum and he urged Irish exporters to do their paperwork in advance. That is a monumental leap for even the most efficient and well-prepared companies, given the scale of the plans the Government has in place to help deal with that. The UK has decided to offer a six-month deferral of Brexit customs declarations until 30 June 2021. I believe a corresponding deferral on this island, although I appreciate that may be difficult with our EU partners, would assist us in getting over the hill, so to speak.Last year, we were told that 400 additional customs officials had been hired and trained by the Revenue Commissioners. Could the Minister confirm exactly how many have been taken on and trained with respect to dealing with the future problems?

As the Minister probably knows, I am the convener of the German-Irish parliamentary friendship group. I have been the convener for the past four years and I am delighted to be convener again. Yesterday, the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce celebrated its 40th anniversary in Ireland. The Germans have been particularly helpful in supporting Ireland all the way through the negotiations. There are, however, a number of concerns that the Germans and I share.

I compliment Wexford County Council and Rosslare Harbour, which have laid on facilities for customs checking. One of the facilities is slightly outside the town of Rosslare but I believe that will be managed. While I see the preparations in Rosslare, I am not so sure that there are similar preparations in the UK. My colleague, Senator Joe O'Reilly, just referred to the issue of congestion. When I see the backlog of trucks running for several miles, particularly at Dover, I become somewhat concerned. In the previous Seanad, one of my colleagues told me it would not be a problem and that the British would lay on a single carriageway for Irish trucks to go from Pembroke straight down to Dover and then straight across the channel, and that they would not be stopped. Let us face it: we know that is not going to happen. Perishable goods comprise the big issue if using the land bridge. I am aware that the sea bridge has started to open up. I was delighted to see last week the opening of the new service to Dunkirk, which is a bit of an irony in itself. We need to get farther into Europe, probably up into Duisburg or the Hook of Holland. I wonder what plans exist to support additional deep-sea vessels, even though we understand that the deep-sea vessels that will be travelling will take considerably longer to make their journeys.

My next point, on the exploitation of future opportunities, particularly in mainland Europe, is probably not related to the Bill. We have been reliant on Britain for many years with respect to activities such as drug importation. It would be great if we could move to a German or French supplier in this regard. It would be great to determine what opportunities exist. When I was in Germany last year, we were examining Irish trade with Germany. There are significant parts of Germany in which we do not currently trade. The Minister has been working on that, as has his Department. I see great opportunities.

Ultimately, we have to turn Brexit into an opportunity, North and South, for Ireland to box above its weight in Europe. We are lucky Europe is prepared to support a peripheral island like ours.

I am not sure what the position is on fisheries today but fisheries have been a major concern for Irish fishermen who fish off the Donegal and east coasts and, I am sure, off the Galway coast. Perhaps the Minister will be able to give us a little bit of information on this.

I am not going to waste any more of the Minister's time. He has done a sterling job. I look forward, with some excitement, to how we are going to exploit the opportunities available owing to Brexit. Senator Chambers, as Chairman of the new Brexit committee, will examine these issues as the committee sits. We could not have a stronger person in place. I congratulate her on her appointment to the committee as Chairman.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House today. I will not be doing anything to obstruct his Bill as it goes through. I hope to see it go through fairly sharply on Thursday.