Brendan Smith: Barnier praised, warns Brexit threatens border economy

The Taoiseach in his introductory remarks referred to the work of Michel Barnier as the EU's chief negotiator, and he outlined that Mr Barnier at the Council meeting had given a detailed report on the negotiations with the British in relation to the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol. I was glad to hear the Taoiseach state that Mr Barnier laid a particular emphasis in his contribution on peace in Ireland, and that's not a new convert to peace in Ireland. I was a colleague of Michel Barnier and the Council of Agriculture Ministers and the Council of Agriculture Ministers back from 2007 to 2011, and at that time he always displayed a great knowledge and interest in Ireland. He had been regional affairs commissioner back in the late 1990s or the early 2000s, and he was very familiar with Ireland and the potential for the all-Ireland development and the potential for developing the economy on an all-Ireland basis, and indeed he was very supportive of the then Fianna Fáil government's applications for structural funds in relation to infrastructure development, and particularly projects of a cross-border nature. So he is very familiar, very knowledgeable, and very interested as well in the whole context of ensuring that we have a lasting and stable peace in our country, and he fully understands the damage that Brexit can do to our Ireland. Could I just say that since 1998 and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, that has been transformative, as we know, for all of our Ireland, and it has been particularly transformative and beneficial for the region that I represent, having had the privilege of representing two border counties over many years, representing them in the bad days prior to the Good Friday Agreement, and representing them in the much more positive days where we have had so much political progress. And could I just say, there again, Michel Barnier understands the progress that has been made. He has reiterated on so many occasions the need to ensure that that progress, that political progress, the economic progress that has been made for the people north and south, that that's not lost. Could I just say that Brexit has been in our political lexicon since January of 2013 when the then British Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, announced that his government were proposing to hold a referendum on British membership of the European Union. And that referendum was held subsequently 23rd of June 2016, I recall, and unfortunately, the decision was made at that time to leave the European Union. And of course, it has dominated political debate here. The second deadline of the last day of October 2019, that was missed, and we have had Brexit dominating our political discussions. And to the credit of both houses of the Oireachtas and to every committee over the past number of years, particularly since 2016, people of every party and no party have given an extraordinary amount of time to working and dealing with the whole Brexit issue, people knowing the impact that it can have on our island. Could I just say that it has been very heartening for all of us, and particularly for those of us who live in border communities, and who have the privilege of representing border communities, to witness the progress that has been made since 1998. We have had the development of the all Ireland economy. We have had enterprises that say, for example, were only located in our state, who have gone on to develop enterprises in Northern Ireland, and similarly businesses in Northern Ireland, that prior to 1998 had only a presence in Northern Ireland, having a strong presence in our state as well. Those companies, in so many instances, have developed into all Ireland companies, creating jobs for people north, south, east, and west of our island. That has been facilitated by the single European market. That has been facilitated by the fact that we do not have a border, that thankfully, in effect, the Good Friday Agreement dismantled the border infrastructure on our island. Can I just say that I only instance only last week at the Committee on the Good Friday Agreement, the central border area, which has been the least developed area in our country. That is the counties of Cavan, Monaghan and north of the border of Toronto and Fermanagh. Our four counties, if we want to take that unit, are very heavily dependent on three particular sectors of the economy, the agri-food sector, construction products and engineering sectors. They are very heavily dependent on those three sectors to generate employment and to develop an economy and make export earnings as well. Could I also say that those sectors are most heavily dependent on the Northern Ireland and the British market as well. If there is an imposition in tariffs on products from those sectors going to Britain to our primary market, it will create huge problems in regard to the viability of those enterprises and those enterprises remaining competitive. We have the double-edged negative of sectors that are the primary economic driver in the least developed regions, being the sectors that are most heavily dependent on the British market to export to and to make their living and to sell their product. So I have appealed on numerous times that hopefully we will have a deal. But in the event of there being no deal and these sectors being very exposed, that government assistance has to be targeted at those particular areas. There is a huge interdependence in the border economy North and South. I can instance it and Minister Burton would know my own county well and County Monaghan as well. He will know the enterprises I am talking about. Some of them are sited on our side of the border and then on the Fermanagh side their sister companies as well. Companies that are very interdependent, part manufacturing in one jurisdiction, part assembly in another jurisdiction. So there will be unbelievable complications and additional cost burdens if we do not have a deal in that respect. So that is why it is particularly important. And it is very worrying the messages and the talk from Westminster over the past number of days and over the past number of weeks in regard to their wanting to forge ahead without a deal. I sincerely hope and I thought that the Taoiseach, as Deputy Sean High referred to, that he was somewhat optimistic that a deal would be reached. We sincerely hope that that can be achieved because it is absolutely necessary. And the huge progress that has been made would be knocked back in incalculable terms if we do not have an agreement. One of the phrases that I used at the first committee meeting that we had in 2016 after the British referendum, I said that that decision of the British people to decide to leave the European Union was it knocked the stuffing out of border communities. Because those of us who lived there through the bad days, we saw the complete change around where communities come together, regardless of whether we were sited on the northern side of the border or on the southern side, whether we were sited in Fermanagh or in Cavan or in Monaghan or Tyrone. So these are huge stakes for our communities. They are huge stakes for all of our Ireland. Could I just refer to COVID and the Taoiseach quite understandably said that the commentary by all the heads of state and heads of government at the council meeting were very sombre in regard to COVID. I have said at many occasions in this chamber that we need an all Ireland approach to dealing with this pandemic. We need the restrictions to be as comparable both north and south and similarly that those restrictions and those measures are implemented in a similar way as well. Having restrictions and not implementing them on one side of the border won't help us to eliminate this virus from our Ireland. Thank you, Alaskan Khorla. Thank you. Thank you.