Well, I’ll try and stick to the report, which states that concerns over implications of Brexit for Welsh ports centre on three areas: that a soft border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will displace traffic from Welsh ports to those in England and Scotland via Northern Ireland; that any new customs arrangements will create technological and logistical challenges for our ports; and that many Welsh ports lack capacity to accommodate any new border controls and customs checks.

As the Welsh Government response to our report states:

Currently over 70 per cent of cargo to and from Ireland, Great Britain and the wider EU pass through Welsh ports.’

It adds:

If there were effectively no customs checks in the island of Ireland but they were introduced at mainland UK ports, freight operators may be encouraged to move cargo flows through the Irish land border and into the UK from Northern Ireland—using Liverpool and/or Scotland as part of the “land bridge”, and not Wales.’

It is therefore concerning that the Welsh Government only accepts in principle our recommendation that it seeks clarification from the UK Government on the anticipated timescales for the development and implementation of proposed new IT-led customs arrangements and sets out how it expects the costs of these new arrangements to be borne.

Stena Line Ports warned that Holyhead was constrained by space and would not have the capacity to stop vehicles. It is therefore also concerning that the Welsh Government only accepts in principle our recommendation that it sets out how it intends to address the lack of physical capacity to accommodate new borders and customs checks at Welsh ports.

In 2015, 50 per cent of more than 750,000 lorries carried along the central corridor to Dublin passed through Holyhead. After Dover, Holyhead is the second largest roll-on, roll-off ferry port in the UK, as the Chair of the committee indicated, with a business model dependent upon the open ports policy. Emulating the responsible approach being taken by the Irish Government, the Welsh Government should, therefore, be making detailed preparations now to ensure that any new arrangements do not lead to a displacement of traffic from Welsh ports, principally Holyhead.

As an antidote to some of the prophecies of doom previously heard, and perhaps more recently heard in this Chamber, let us therefore consider some of the evidence that the committee received. A 2017 survey of its members by the Irish Exporters Association found that 94 per cent do business with or export to the UK, and that 67 per cent make use of the UK land bridge to access continental markets. The Irish finance Minister told an Irish parliamentary committee earlier this year,

I cannot see how that would not be maintained because if one looks at the situation in Italy where every day thousands of trucks drive through Switzerland in both directions carrying goods and services from Italy to Germany and France and so on and they have an arrangement whereby one seals the truck so that it does not have to be physically examined and there are legal arrangements that apply. ‘

Having carried out detailed modelling, unlike the Welsh Government, the Irish Maritime Development Office told us that Brexit will not close the 18-hour advantage of the UK land bridge to continental markets. Only last Thursday, the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee was told by the head of trade in Canada’s Brussels embassy that 70 per cent of its trade with the USA is carried by trucks across a few passing points on the border, and that security clearance programmes for trucks and drivers, combined with an e-manifest programme for goods, provides a very efficient and speedy system.

The Irish transport Minister told us that the common travel area issue should be resolved without any real problem and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told us that you can leave the customs union and still have customs arrangements afterwards.

In its response, the Welsh Government states only that it seeks to mitigate the risk to Welsh businesses of a lack of preparedness by working with HM Revenue and Customs. But Irish Ferries told us that an IT-led solution would be key and that discussions with HM Revenue and Customs and the sector were already under way. Perhaps this explains why the committee had to recommend that the Welsh Government urgently addresses the lack of engagement it has had with counterparts in Ireland and other EU member states, having heard that Ireland has had over 400 engagements over Brexit across Europe, but the Cabinet Secretary here confirmed that he had not yet met Irish Government counterparts to discuss the implications of Brexit for Ireland-Wales transport links. Diolch.