-----a ceasefire and then a process that I hope in the months ahead-----

-----can protect the interests of both parties.

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves Ireland’s participation in the European Defence Agency Project - Maritime Surveillance (MARSUR) Networking - Operational Support and Development (MARSUR III) pursuant to section 2 of the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. I appreciate the opportunity to present the motion to the House following discussion at the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on 30 March. In commending the motion to the House, I will briefly outline the function of the European Defence A…

I thank everybody who took the time to participate in the debate. I do not agree with all the views but it is certainly appropriate that with any of these projects, we have a debate and make an informed decision on the back of that. We had the opportunity to discuss many of these matters and I thought, naively, that the conversation, including questions and answers, in committee had addressed some of the genuine concerns that Members expressed. For some Members it was as if we did not have that discussion at all. T…

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am pleased to be back in the Seanad this evening. The ongoing engagement of Senators is very welcome on what remains an issue of vital importance for businesses and citizens on the island of Ireland. Since my last appearance before the Senators, we have seen the successful conclusion of EU-UK negotiations on a future relationship and the end of the transition period. Securing the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA, together with the withdrawal agreement, including the Protocol o…

This has been a really good series of statements from Senators from all parties. The tone has been very considered and generous in terms of trying to link the challenges we face with the relationships we need to rebuild and manage. At times this is difficult, especially when people approach the same challenge from a very different perspective. Trying to reach a common understanding is often not easy. I will now deal with a number of the issues raised. It is important to understand why the protocol itself is so impo…

The answer in that regard is to alter supply chains, which is what has already happened. Let us take the example of a box of corn flakes. Corn flakes sold in Ireland are produced in Spain, by and large. They go to a redistribution centre in the UK and are redistributed into the UK and Ireland supply chain from there. However, because they are repackaged and re-boxed there, a tariff applies. Retailers are looking at redesigning their supply chains in order to be able to source products in a way that does not involve…

I will happily come back on the issue of the UN Security Council. We can talk about China.

A little over a year ago, I stood together in the cold with the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Julian Smith, and we announced we believed we had found the basis for an agreement on which all parties could come together and restore the Executive, the assembly and the North-South Ministerial Council. In an act of political courage and imagination, and in a spirit of compromise, the five parties did just that. It had taken three tough years to get us to that point. Hard compromises were made on all side…

I propose to share time with the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. The United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union posed unprecedented political, economic and diplomatic challenges for Ireland. Countering the risks to peace and prosperity necessitated not only a whole-of-government but a whole-of-society approach. To do so as effectively as we have done required substantial contributions from people across this House, from countless public servants and from business, academia and civil society. I thank eve…

I am conscious the Deputy was looking to share his time. I can address them at the end. If the Deputy is happy, I think I get ten minutes at the end of the debate to wrap up and I can answer his questions then and let his colleague in now.

That is fine. I am not ever hung up on that formality, to be honest. There are a lot of questions. On the Brexit adjustment fund, first, we have to get it approved. At the moment, what we have is a draft proposal. Some countries are questioning that allocation process and we need to get that approved in the European Parliament and signed off on in the European Commission so we can access that money as soon as possible. The Government will then look to the areas that have seen the most disruption from Brexit and tha…

The straight answer to that is “Yes”. To put some context around the question, in the last 24 hours, we have had 1,136 movements into Ireland through Rosslare and Dublin from the UK. That, I think, is about a 15% increase on where we were last week, so we are seeing-----

Absolutely. This started with significantly lower volumes because of stockpiling at the end of last year, because of concern and worry, understandably, and because of people getting their heads around the paperwork, particularly in the UK, where there was a real lack of preparation by many companies. We are now starting to see the volumes ramp up. The Deputy will be glad to hear the figure for green routing of goods through our ports is now 80%, when a few days ago it was 70%. Companies are working the new systems …

That is a fair question. My understanding is that the actual allocation of this money, once it has been confirmed, will be managed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which the Deputy will understand only too well, given his time there. I suspect the Department of Finance will be involved in the discussion as well, with other Departments like the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and other sectors will then make their contributions…

On the question of the all-island economy, a huge priority of the Brexit negotiations has been to ensure there is no border infrastructure and no barriers to trade between North and South. That has been a huge challenge. The solution we arrived at - the protocol on Northern Ireland and Ireland - is somewhat controversial for some because it requires some level of checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland on trade in order to effectively create a de facto extension of the EU Single Market for goods into Nort…

I am glad that Deputy Cahill raised this. He has a lot of credibility on this area. It is a real problem. I do not want to pretend it will be solved easily. About 900 million litres of milk comes south from Northern Ireland farms to be processed. Lakeland Dairies is probably the best example of a processor which has a very significant percentage of its milk pool coming from the North, but Glanbia and others do too. The challenge is that one can sell milk that has been sourced on a Northern Ireland farm across the E…

We probably need to look to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to comment on how we support the sector. I do not want to do his job for him. He is more than capable of doing it and is very vocal in this space at Cabinet meetings. Some of the disruption to the agrifood sector is clearly linked to Brexit, and our key market and nearest neighbour for agrifood products - we sell €5.5 billion of food to the UK every year - has to be factored into the Brexit adjustment reserve. I hope that part of that €1 …

I have spoken to hauliers and haulage companies on this. There are a range of issues they are concerned about, including being able to get on ferries in terms of direct ferry routes, and we have seen a dramatic increase in the capacity of multiple ferry operators from Irish Ferries to Stena Line to Brittany Ferries and two or three other operators, That situation has improved and continues to get better in terms of increased capacity on direct routes. Hauliers that are operating between the UK and Ireland are facin…

Steel is a problem and there is much effort going in now to look at how we solve that. In simple terms there is what is called a safeguard measure that has been introduced by the EU. As a result of Covid-19 and a lack of building activity globally, the EU decided that it needed to act to protect the EU steel industry, and therefore it introduced what is called a safeguard measure, which effectively is a 25% tariff or duty on steel coming into the EU from a third country. The problem on the island of Ireland is that…