Listen to "David McWilliams at Women and Agriculture" on Spreaker.Speaking at the Women and Agriculture conference in Co Carlow on Thursday, McWilliams stated that we needed a fresh approach in regard to Brexit, and that Ireland should negotiate its own deal with Britain.
Listen to "David McWilliams at Women and Agriculture" on Spreaker.
Speaking at the Women and Agriculture conference in Co Carlow on Thursday, McWilliams stated that we needed a fresh approach in regard to Brexit, and that Ireland should negotiate its own deal with Britain.
“Our interests are totally different to anyone else and yet we are allowing someone from France to negotiate for us,” he said.
McWilliams felt that a separate but parallel negotiation process would be in Ireland’s best interests, and emphasised the unique relationship we have with the UK.
“The point is we trade with them, the point is they’re our nearest neighbours, the point is we have a border with them,” he said.
The economist believed it would be impossible for the UK to get a good Brexit deal because the EU could not be seen to be lenient with a country who had left the EU “club”.
“We are ceding our negotiation stance to Brussels which sometimes works but in context of this will not work, because if Brussels moves to punish Britain it will punish Ireland.”
UK election
The British government is yet to progress past the first phase of Brexit negotiations with the EU, and one of the main issues in the first phase of negotiations is the border in Northern Ireland.
However, after his speech McWilliams stated: “It’s clear to me that Brexit won’t happen until there’s another British election, which could be Corbyn – and God knows what’s going to happen then.”
The thought of another UK election would terrify many people in the UK, where the currency has experienced a 14% drop since the Brexit vote last year, and political uncertainty is already thought to have added to the slower rate of economic growth.
Stamp duty
When asked about the rise in stamp duty from 2% to 6% in this year’s budget, McWilliams said: “I’m going to be very unpopular. We have a choice; either we tax work and wages or wealth and whether we like it or not land is an asset, and if that asset is taxed at a much lower rate, then working is then the likelihood is that it will lie pretty fallow, and just be left there to be inherited”
McWilliams went onto to clarify that there should be a system where unproductive farmers were targeted and taxed.
“I think that land that is productive is one thing, but where agricultural land that is not productive, there should clearly be a cost to that.
”There are two types of farmer, there is the active farmer who is farming the land and there is the farm hoarder, who is hoarding the land in order to pass it on.”
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