Joe Conway (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very gratifying for us here in the House to welcome the Tánaiste and hear his very calm, sane and reassuring words this morning.

One thing we oftentimes say is we never learn anything from history. The same can be said about tariffs in the fact that the pages of history, if they are not quite littered with examples of the failure of tariffs, then certainly the pages are fairly replete. Approximately 120 years ago, the president of the Board of Trade on our neighbouring island - which was then in the economic equivalent of the dominance of America at the moment - brought in a thing called imperial preference, giving preference to British colony trade.From 1903 until 1906, it generated an awful lot of restiveness in British industry and inflation. The sequel to it was the landslide victory over the Tories in 1906. We should take heart both from the Government's reassurance and from the pages of history. I do not believe there will be systematic long-term damage from these tariffs. I am very much hopeful that will be the case.

In the short time available to us, perhaps the Tánaiste will give his thoughts on the differential between the tariff rates proposed for the United Kingdom and the EU, respectively, and how that will knock our trade with the UK out of kilter given the better trading measures it has in place with the United States.