Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is correct.

The Tánaiste is very welcome to the House. I thank him for his congratulations on our return to Seanad Éireann, and congratulate him and his party on their return to government.

The soundings from all sides of the Government is that we are now in a crisis and we stick together. We have done it before. We did it with Brexit and we did it very well. I am delighted that when the Tánaiste came to this House he referred to all Members of the House having an interest in making sure we get through this together. I hope we find the spirit of Brexit coming through as well as the lessons we learnt from Brexit, particularly with the differentiation that exists now between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with respect to tariffs. I am delighted the Tánaiste has already been in contact with the First Minister, the deputy First Minister and the economy Minister. That is really important.

The soundings from Europe are that "we are in this together". I hate to put in a note of caution. We were in it together when the banking collapse came but Ireland took the brunt of it. Ireland is a very small open economy in Europe and we trade in some very specific products. The whiskey industry is one that comes to mind; agriculture is another. I am not that concerned that pharma will leave Ireland and go back to the United States. Given the lead time to set up a pharma plant, Donald Trump will be long gone by the time the first plant will be built. Given the educational groups we have in places such as Galway and Cork specifically aimed at feeding the pharma industry, I do not see pharma as a huge problem. What would be of concern to me are the footloose industries here, the ones that lease a desk, a building and a computer and are in business and up and running. I am concerned about those.

As regards my greatest concern, Ireland has had phenomenal economic growth. I say that as someone who has lived through most of it. Even in the worst of times, in the past 20 or 30 years, we continued to see economic growth and to see the Government support business. The problem I see now is in the manufacturing sector. A lot of manufacturing now is operating on JIT systems where products or resources have to be delivered on time in order to keep manufacturing going. That may become a problem, and if it does, the Government has to be in a position to support those industries. If workers go on short time, we have to be able to support them. I agree with what the Tánaiste said this morning: let us not jump hoops before they are there. Let us take our time and take one step at a time.

As a former trade union leader, I am concerned that in the event of a collapse or of serious impact on the workforce, the workforce will be expected to carry the can. A great many people in this country have made an awful lot of money out of the huge success this economy has been, so let us make sure that everybody pays their load, if you like, or takes their part of the load as they carry it through. Trade wars will impact our economy insofar as prices will rise and inflationary pressures will come on board, and that will lead to my former colleagues looking for pay rises to meet inflation costs.I urge the Minister to start negotiating now with trade unions. Let us get the trade unions in and establish a combined approach as we move forward. Let us make sure Ireland's competitiveness remains as it has been for the past 20 or 30 years. No worker wants to see a pay rise at the cost of competitiveness and the industry ultimately closing. Therefore, let us work with the trade unions now. We have all the economic people onside. I listened to them on the radio this morning - IBEC, etc. - all out vying for their own sectors. Let us get the trade union movement in straight away and sit down, talk and put together strategies as the economy takes the hit. After listening to the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, I know there is genuine concern that we soften the blow as much as possible. We have the rainy day fund, but I would hate to see it squandered on short-term solutions.

I am also anxious that Europe does not retaliate. There is an opportunity to negotiate out of this. As one of my colleagues, Senator Joe O'Reilly, just said, American consumers are going to be hit and the pressure is going to come from American consumers on the tariffs and how they are impacting their economy. Already, the automotive industry in America is not very happy at what is happening. As this series of tariffs kicks in, we are going to find ourselves in a situation where Americans have become a lot less happy than we are and that might impact the way things go.

Regarding short-term solutions, anybody who has ever studied economics will know that tariffs have a short-term boost, often leading to a very long-term series of pain. I hope that when Europe goes to negotiate with the United States, Ireland is front and centre. We are one of the best negotiators in the world. If Trump is a transaction person, we are excellent at negotiation.

I want to turn briefly to the war in Ukraine. I have been a supporter of Europe's attitude and European support for Ukraine, and a critic of Ireland's unwillingness to provide weapons we could provide to help the Ukrainians fight the Russian war. Having said that, I am also a critic of the fact that steps taken by the Irish Government to support Ukraine have never been debated in this House or the Lower House. When we decided to set aside our attitude towards being militarily non-aligned - we were never neutral; I need to put that on the record, as I always do - we should have debated in the Houses of Parliament. That is what the Oireachtas is here for. When we decide to move forward and support Ukraine further, we need to come into the Parliament. The Parliament is well able to debate these things. I do not believe there is any party or any group in the Parliament of this country that would be unwilling to support Ukraine. However, we should do it in an open and transparent way with full debate.

We had a debate here yesterday on a Bill regarding air navigation and transport arms embargo. The Government did not oppose the Bill. I was alone in opposing it. I opposed it because we could not action the Bill if we passed it. We are simply unable to get up to 35,000 feet to find out who is carrying what where. We need to be realistic in what we are doing.

When we talk about the war in the Middle East and about Israel and its brutal, and I mean absolutely brutal, response to Hamas, we need to be aware of the fact that Hamas itself has been brutal. I am going over time so I will leave that and we might discuss it at a later date.