Get real on Brexit... before it’s too late

IT quite plainly is in Ireland’s best interests that no hard border is erected after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. However, as we have consistently warned, it is delusional folly to believe that won’t happen just because we don’t want it to.

That’s why it would be foolish for the Government to pin any hopes on the latest suggestion from the EU, that the North should stay in the Customs Union, while Britain would leave. In June last year, a majority of voters in the United Kingdom opted for Brexit, and they meant the whole of the UK, not a piecemeal effort from which the North would be excluded. Short of another referendum, that cannot and will not change.

The demand from the EU is ludicrous and simply cannot be met.

Indeed, it is much more likely to cause a further impasse and more delays, and ultimately back Westminster so far into a corner that it will lead to an even harder Brexit born of frustration.

If the EU, collectively, decides that the UK be exiled because it will not accept unworkable solutions, it also must know that the inevitable consequence is the rebuilding of checkpoints and security towers on this island.

This would be a disastrous move that not only would cause considerable inconvenience to many who work on one side of the border and live on the other, or who conduct trade between the two jurisdictions, but might also lead to the resurgence of paramilitary groups presented with a fortified line of new targets. The EU and the Government must accept that what is done is done. All of the UK will leave the union, and the priority is to offer plausible solutions on every aspect of Brexit, not fantasy suggestions that clearly can come to naught.