Government Brexit stance ‘hurt business’

FIANNA Fáil has accused ministers of wrong-footing businesses on Brexit by trumpeting December’s backstop deal between the EU and UK as ‘cast-iron’.

The party’s Brexit spokeswoman, Lisa Chambers, accused Leo Varadkar of inadvertently preventing business groups from taking preparatory measures by sheltering them from the reality of Brexit.

The Taoiseach hailed the agreement for avoiding a hard border, struck late last year, as ‘bulletproof’ only for British prime minister Theresa May to row back on it later.

Ms Chambers said: ‘Last December our Government essentially told the business community everything will be fine. “This is sorted, we have a bulletproof, cast-iron backstop.” If you’re a small business and you have limited resources, are you going to use that money to Brexit-proof your business? It costs money to do that. Are you going to do that in light of the Government saying everything is going to be fine? Or are you going to use that money elsewhere?’

She said the Government’s suggestion that the issue had been resolved sent the wrong message to businesses and is in part to blame for the lack of preparedness in the sector. She said an AIB survey earlier this year showed that only 6% of SMEs here had a Brexit plan.

Simon Coveney recently accused Fianna Fáil of undermining the Government on Brexit, after Stephen Donnelly – formerly the party’s spokesman on the issue – accused it of being ‘asleep at the wheel’ regarding the border problem.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said he was concerned that Fianna Fáil had switched policy ‘from one of consultation with the Government, to one of trying to find ways of undermining and criticising what the Government is trying to do’.