Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending and I thank him and his officials for all their work. I thank Senator Chambers for her work as chair of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the Withdrawal of the UK from the EU. I agreed with most of Senator Gavan's points, although I observe that the Conservative Party is not the only party that has tried to paint the EU as some kind of bogeyman in recent years on this island. At times we might have taken some of the benefits of the EU for granted and Brexit has shown that. It is important that we look at selling the EU, that we stress why the Single Market is so important and that we talk about freedom of movement and the benefits of the EU to Ireland, particularly in the context of us approaching celebrating 50 years of membership.

We can go a number of ways from here and there is the question of building trust because the fear is, as colleagues have said, that we will get over this issue and in six months there will be another issue. The difficulty is, as the Minister will be aware, is that there is no opportunity to meet on the margins of meetings between Irish and UK Ministers and that there is not the same level of interaction between parliamentarians and Ministers as there would have been in the past on a broader range of issues. We have to look at how we can develop those ministerial links to a greater extent to build trust and parliamentary links. Crucially, we also have to build links between civic society. Much of the focus in the shared island unit has been on capital projects but we also have to look at how we can get our citizens working together closely.

Commissioner Šefovi warned that we would see serious consequences if Article 16 was triggered. If we end up in a trade war, which I sincerely hope we do not, we know we have the Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund in place for businesses that have been affected by Brexit. I would like some assurances that if we end up in a trade war, the Government and the EU will step in to provide as many supports as possible for those companies and sectors that may be affected by tariffs.