Splendid Isolation

at

UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

In a private meeting with party leaders last night, Mr Varadkar and his department secretary general John Callinan said unless the Irish question is resolved, the EU could hypothetically move control of any border away from Ireland and onto the continent.

Such a scenario would remove the need for a hard border between the Republic and the North.

However, it would also mean Ireland and the UK would be treated as one bloc, several sources at the meeting told the Irish Examiner, which must be “avoided at all costs”.

Meanwhile…

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet briefing, Mr Varadkar’s spokesperson said “the Government is not in denial” over the scale of the crisis.

However, he repeatedly declined to explain how to avoid a no-deal Brexit without using the withdrawal agreement or the backstop, stressed “there are no preparations for a hard border”, and said it remains up to Britain to find a solution.

Ireland faces isolation with Britain as EU border mooted (Irish Examiner)

Barnier says time-limited backstop would be useless (RTÉ)

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7 thoughts on “Splendid Isolation

    1. Otis Blue

      Well to do so would fatally undermine the four fundamental freedoms that have been legally guaranteed by EU membership since 1986. They state that goods, services, capital and persons can move without restriction within the EU.

      Were the EU intent on such a proposal it would effectively create a two-tier EU; the wider political and economic consequences of which would be catastrophic.

      A no deal scenario, if it arises, inevitably leads to a hard border. Bluster and bravado by FG doesn’t change this.

    2. Cian

      Why not?

      When the UK opted out of the Schengen Agreement we had to choose between a (hard) border between us and the UK Vs a (hard) border between us and the rest of the EU. We chose an EU border back then.

      Most lorries going from, say, Dublin to Paris will go via the UK. If we are ‘in’ the EU there will be two (hard) border crossings. If we are ‘out’ of the EU there will only be one (hard) border crossing.

      Unfortunately it may the most pragmatic choice.

      1. edalicious

        Unless we massively expand our sea ports in the south east and ship all of our EU bound stuff through Rosslare or somewhere like that. I’m sure the extra transit time will be more than made up for by the extra wait times at two hard borders going through the UK. I’m sure there’s probably some complication I’m not seeing but surely it can’t be that difficult to expand the port and increase the frequency of ships going in and out of Rosslare?

      2. ReproBertie

        Because it breaks the four pillars of the EU and those four pillars are why they won’t budge for the UK. They’ll not suddenly decide it’s OK to push us out.

  1. Martco

    @Repro
    yeah, we’ll they won’t want to be SEEN to be doing that in any case.

    from what I can see in my crystal ball a No Deal = lose lose for us. It’s 32 counties v’s effectively an Irexit.
    If that’s the outcome…if you’re just starting off in working life it might all settle down by the time you’re in your mid 40’s, if you’re in your settled 40’s now by the time it happens it’s going to be expensive, crushing times ahead for some…listening to the chat around the office lots of bravado amongst the youngones, but my age group someone even talking about looking into their banking arrangements.
    Serious times now.

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