Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am thankful for this opportunity to speak today. I want to begin by thanking the members of the committee but, importantly, the clerk to the committee, Christy Houghton, and members of the secretariat, John Foyle, Claudia Zelli and Haley O’Shea, who worked with myself and committee members over the course of a year to put together this final report on Brexit on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Without that secretariat and team, we would not have the fine body of work we have today to discuss in this Chamber. It is important to acknowledge the work they did.

It was a fascinating year of work. We had established our committee the previous year with an intention to work for six months and to conclude our work at that point but, obviously, Brexit has not concluded. It still rumbles on. We did not anticipate the level of activity in this space all of last year so, understandably, we sought to extend our work by a further six months. It was worthwhile doing that. It was the intention of the committee, and I think we achieved this objective, to give a platform to community groups, industry, those most affected by Brexit and those living along the Border community but also to extend the arm of friendship and to have an outreach element within the committee’s work to link in with parliamentarians in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and in the United States and lean on our friends across the Border and beyond to get that feedback that there is support not only for a Brexit that causes the least amount of damage to our country but, ultimately, for protecting the peace agreement and the Good Friday Agreement, something about which we were very passionate throughout our work.

We engaged with industry, civil society groups, affected communities and the Minister’s Department on a regular basis and he was very generous with his time in coming before the committee on a number of occasions to update us, and we very much appreciated that. We also engaged with Commissioner Šefovi and his team. We engaged with the House of Lords committee in Great Britain on a number of occasions. We also engaged, and it was very useful, with the Northern Ireland committee. We invited its members to attend our committee meeting but what was really helpful and insightful was our travelling to Stormont where we met them in their parliament to discuss the ongoing issues. We found that relationship building eye-opening and it gave us a much needed different perspective. Of course, we engaged with the unionist community while we did that. Initially, that engagement was a bit more difficult in terms of making it happen but we got there eventually and I am very glad we were able to include that perspective in our report. I hope everybody who engaged with our committee feel they got a fair and proper hearing and that their views are adequately reflected in our report.

The Minister touched on a number of areas we touched on during our work. We looked at trade flows and how the impact of the new trading environment was affecting businesses and those working that sector. We also looked at cross-border healthcare. That was a big focus of our committee. We were very pleased to see movement on that during the course of our committee’s work. The intention is to legislate and to put a new arrangement on a permanent statutory footing. We looked at the issue of medicines, as was said, and at data adequacy, an issue on which the wider public might not be very focused at this point but it is still an important issue. We focused heavily on the protocol and future relations between Ireland the UK and the UK and the European Union. That probably was the bulk of our work.

In terms of the Northern Ireland protocol, we engaged with many representatives from different sectors to see how it was working and we got updates from the Minister and Commission Šefovi on that. We appreciate the update the Minister gave us today in terms of his engagements in Brussels and the latest position. We were always concerned throughout our work that the ongoing prolonged and protracted negotiations would have a destabilising effect on the island, particularly Northern Ireland. I still hold the view that the sooner we provide clarity and certainty and bed in the protocol, the sooner Northern Ireland can reap the benefits. One of the overarching facts from the contributions to our committee over the course of that year from many different stakeholders and members was that the protocol was the only option on the table after everything else had been explored to try to square that circle. There was the question of how we could manage there being two different jurisdictions on the island, one in the European Union and one not in it and the protocol was the only option that was available. It was identified throughout our work.

On the witnesses who appeared before our committee, the ESRI springs to mind in pointing out that if the protocol is seized on properly and implemented in full, it could be of major benefit and provide great opportunities for Northern Ireland, in particular, and for businesses there.It appears that businesses and many citizens are acknowledging this fact. We hope, therefore, that the political parties in Northern Ireland will also acknowledge it. Some have but, unfortunately, others have not. The work on that is ongoing. The members of the committee are of the view that our work allowed us to delve into the issue in greater detail than would have been the case with other joint Oireachtas committees.

We looked at the future relationship in particular detail. We engaged with Members of the House of Lords on a number of occasions and with our colleagues in Northern Ireland. Despite there being different views among many members of those committees, the one thing we unanimously agreed on was the need to protect the relationship we have, to mend the wounds that have been generated over the past number of years because of Brexit and to try and chart a path forward and find a way to ensure that there is engagement between us in Ireland and our friends and colleagues across the water. The overarching contribution from all members was that despite our difficulties and differences, we all recognise the important relationship between the islands on many levels, including cultural, economic, etc. There was a desire to find a way to maintain that engagement, recognising that with the UK no longer being in the EU, the consistent opportunity to meet on the fringes of European meetings is no longer there. Replacing those meetings with another mechanism on an ongoing basis and giving all Members of the Oireachtas an opportunity to engage with all parliamentarians in the North and across the water would be of great benefit to both islands. That was an important lesson for us to learn as a committee.

There was also a desire to see the joint committee up and running and to ensure that there is democratic accountability on this island for the ongoing implementation not just of the withdrawal agreement but also of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Currently, democratic oversight in this regard is tenuous and is something we need to monitor.

Another area we focused on, which is something that we need to keep working on, is the acknowledged democratic deficit in Northern Ireland. Citizens in Northern Ireland are subject to Single Market and EU customs rules but do not have a seat at the table at which those rules are debated, discussed and, potentially, amended or at which new rules created. The strong view of our committee, as expressed in our report, is that whatever we can do to ensure that the voice and views of the people of Northern Ireland are properly heard and represented at an EU level. We have to do that. In the context of how that looks and how it works, there are a number of ways to move forward. However, there is an acknowledged democratic deficit that we would like to see kept at the top of the agenda and prioritised by the Government.

I again thank the members of the committee, the Cathaoirleach for his support for the committee during its work and our secretariat. We can be proud of the report we have published. We can also be proud in the context of the platform we gave to all of those groups, both industry groups and citizens, on this island that have been most impacted by Brexit.