Mattie McGrath Warns 'We Are Not Half Ready' for Brexit Deal

Matti McGrath on the Rural Independence. Good morning, I am happy to speak on the pre-European Council meeting on the 17th and 18th of October. Minister, I am quite happy to speak on this and clearly all of us are waiting to see whether or not the hope or the expectation from this week's developments will bear fruit and if the deal will emerge. We are all hoping for that. We have all supported you and indeed Tanaiste and Taoiseach in his efforts and we are hoping. But certainly in the middle of October, a time when many of us farmers in Tipperary used to grow apples and we will be harvesting the apples. So hopefully the fruit will be, the harvest will be rich and we will get a deal. But what kind of a deal? Clean sort and make it a shin. So we have to wait in a bated breath but we are and have and all the opposition parties have supported you at United on this. We know that at the end of the meeting, on the 21st of June 2019, the UE 27 leaders briefly addressed the issue of Brexit. And only briefly, which we are all surprised. And members were informed of the state of planning for an old deal scenario. And I think we passed some legislation here last night and again recently with the Omnibus Bill. And we are not half ready. We are not half ready. And the gospel that told us is have our lights and have our eye lamps filled. But we are not half ready and it is rushed at this stage. And that is the Government's fault. I know there is uncertainty but we should be ready and we should have a dual strategy from the start. We know from the reporting today that Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, has told the EU commissioners that he is optimistic of a deal. And that the Brexit withdrawal agreement can be done today. So we are all waiting and hopefully we will be done. Because there is no such thing as a good Brexit as far as I am concerned. But certainly an agreed Brexit strategy is far preferable to a crash out. And if the deal happens today that will represent a massive leap forward in negotiations that can hopefully be welcomed by each and everyone. What I want to see of course is the retention of Ireland's key and non-negotiable demands. And the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. And it is always in the small print that you find what really the issues are. So we have to see retention of Ireland's key and non-negotiable demands. We have to see the backstop. There is no cause that will have trouble. We just have to have it. We can't have a border. Because I have said this here every time I have spoken on this and I questioned Michel Barnier about what would be the difference between the border between Northern Ireland and Ocneklai or at Caledon or at Berlík in Romana and the south. And the difference was between the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. A massive border checkpoint built in the last eight, ten years. I have witnessed it myself being held up at it for hours. So on the one hand they were saying there would be no border on Northern Ireland. And then they had this massive border on the extreme side of Europe at Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. So you couldn't have a two-tier EU. That was quite obvious to me. But he didn't answer the question. I said we wouldn't have it. So hopefully we will avoid it. Whatever emergency, we must have the protection for the Good Friday Agreement. But if anything else, we must have a protection for our fishermen and women, and those within the agri-food sector who are being literally thrown to the woods. And I had some debates recently on the fishery. It was last week on radio I had Jeremy DeHern talking about when he was in the Minister dealing with the fisheries and we lost a lot of fisheries. We had to have a token kind of an area, I don't know what word they called it, a box they called it. That EU fishermen and other people couldn't come in and fish. We have to protect our fishermen. We have to protect our farmers. But above all, we have to protect the Good Friday Agreement. And I always refer to it because it was hard-won by former Taoiseach Albert Winslet and indeed Taoiseach Hound. And people from Tipperary like the late fellow Alex Reid, a wonderful man. And of course, a former Tara, a former minister, a deputy senator and historian Martin Mancer from Tipperary. And many others, with Martin Beggin and Scourish, I mean many others have worked so hard for this. But we got the agreement, but I think we took our eye off the ball as regards the horrible events that we have seen in the border area. It happened recently with the former Quinn executives and others. But we all know, Minister, and you must know more than me, you're closer to the border than I am, but I do go up there occasionally. We all know the racketeering and all kinds of extortion is going on there since, kind of mushroomed as a parent. They got a kind of a cat-blanch, kind of free-for-all up there. And they shouldn't have. Shouldn't have. But now we see the very culmination, I think, in horrific violence being perpetrated on those officials. And, scarcely, closing off Garda stations and REC stations. Nothing from where we saw the massive trick, but we didn't want to see those in Fort Killen and in South Armagh and in Canada and everywhere else. But we needed a police presence and a Garda presence. And we didn't have it. And those people are left to the mercy of the waves. So whatever emerges, as I said, we must protect the Good Friday Agreement. We must certainly protect our agriculture. And what's going on in agriculture and the beef sector is a scandal. Nothing short of it. I said today to the Taoiseach, it cannot be business as usual in the agri-industry because they have hoovered up every reasonable, respecting farmer and they've just pulverised them. And, as I said, they spent eight weeks protesting. And the teacher, of course, wasn't interested in him. He was more interested in marching in a Gay Pride March in Belfast than visiting the farmers on the picket line. Again, Minister Creed allowed and has a situation now where an agreement was reached in Kildare. And the very bulwark of that agreement was that the injunctions were to be taken off the farmers. And now we find out they're still not. Because the moguls, the beef panels that ye are afraid of, that ye kowtow to, wouldn't list them. They made an agreement that was signed by all there that they would. And secondly, we have a chairman now of those so-called task force who is an insider. No disrespect for the man. He's a good man. But he was a former Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture. So, every rule that we're trying to get amended and every restriction that has been placed on top of the farmer and the producer, he had fingerprints all over them when they were put in there. How is he going to be fair and impartial? No, he can't be. So we needed someone that would be fair and impartial. And we'll bring MII to book and to heed and respect the producers and the farmers. But no. They won't. Independent farmers of Ireland then, who were at those talks in Gildare and agreed that document. Subjectly consulting with their members. They met lads this night week. 600 of them strong. And those three reps. And I went into the talks at all. So who are you cutting? It can't be the business as usual. The IFA. ICMSA. ICSA. Board B. Board Banya. Chagas. The usual suspects. Fill up the room and pass the paper around. We'll talk about it and then we'll break for lunch and go on and then we'll get an agreement after several weeks. Which will be toothless, useless and fruitless. That has been what's going on with the last 40 years. When the barons were allowed to suffocate and strangle the beef industry. That has to change. Because the farmers know now. They know now that many of the farmer organisations haven't represented them. And they know now that we have former retired presidents of the IFA are now some of the biggest beef lots, producer lots for the factories. They know who was in bed with who. I don't mean literally. They know what's going on. And they have to respect now that a new situation has dawned. And the game is up for them. And we met people who used to say about the poetry industry. And the shenanigans and the skull drug readers that's gone on there, Minister. And you're aware of it, Minister. So's your Taoiseach. So's your Tornister. And so's MEP and Vice President of the Parliament now, McGuinness. The corruption and the black adding that's gone on there. And the same is going on in the beef. And it has to be business as usual. It has to be dealt with. When you add to that the harmful measures adopted by your own government, Minister. In terms of carbon tax. Fuel increases for hauliers and agri-contractors and farmers. And the rise in the cost of living here. Then life is going to be very difficult for ordinary citizens here in Ireland. And your government remains as a threat to the rural economy. I don't say that lightly. I negotiated for six weeks with my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group. And I insisted, and had it in the government in many sections, that every bit of legislation would be rural-proofed. For the impact it would have had on rural dwellers. You haven't rural-proofed a symptom of any piece of legislation. Legislation, bill after bill, has just literally thrown rural Ireland to the wolves. But you did that at your peril. Because rural Ireland has been strong supporters of the Finnegade party always. But it's a two-way street. You support the people and they'll support you. But you haven't. You've abandoned them and they are of need. Abandoned them. And I haven't even got to talk about the horrible issues that are going on out in Syria at the moment and it occurs. But I have tried a number of times here, but your government have a minister, to deal with the persecution of Christians and minority Muslim sex in Syria and elsewhere. And what's going on now is just downright war crimes. Salvage. And European nations stand idly by and assist in this by their absence. And President Trump asked the question too why he removed only 50 soldiers. But it obviously gave the green light to Syria to Turkey. We all know about the Johnny trucks and how they are armed. But the viciousness is that we can have this going on not too far away from our own borders. I've gone to Lebanon and met the Syrian refugees. It is just unthinkable that this can start again. People who stood with the American soldiers and without ISIS and now they can be just wiped out like that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.