Surely, Brexit can’t mean UK navy ships back on our loughs?
IT IS still my firm view that there will be many casualties flowing from the vote by the British people to exit the EU. None more so than for the moves, over the last two decades, to create an allisland economy.
In the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement, the steam had been taken out of the constant and hitherto irreconcilable debate regarding the political and constitutional issues which divided opinion across the island.
But what blossomed in its place was the virtually non-controversial concept of cross-border cooperation in a myriad of social and economic areas.
Over the early years of the new millennium, I had many conversations with unionists politicians regarding the huge benefits of treating the island as a whole.
I often found that we could agree to park the constitutional issue which divided us while at the same time agreeing that it made complete sense to treat the island as one, say, for instance, in the area of energy supply.
When I was the minister with responsibility for energy, I made the point to our political colleagues across the border that it was illogical to have two separate energy grids on an island as small as ours.
And I found I was pushing an open door in this regard.
While Unionist politicians might have been suspicious at the start, they quickly saw the economic benefits for their people in closer ties with us in the south.
The same could be said in virtually every other area of economic development. Telecommunications was another area where there was a glaring need to coordinate between North and south.
Exorbitant roaming charges were adding huge cost to businesses, especially in border areas.
GOVERNMENT departments on both sides of the border were mandated by their masters to drive this agenda. Yes, there was a reticence, on occasions, to push too far. And it wasn’t all one way.
In the early years, when the Troubles were still at their height, there was a hesitancy to link tourism promotion on both sides for fear that the negativity of the violence in the North might reflect badly on the promotion of our tourism product in the south.
For instance, I found the Northern tourism authorities more receptive than their southern counterparts to a proposal being pushed by Séamus Mallon, the late Eddie McGrady and myself to treat both sides of Carlingford Lough as one overall area for tourism promotion.
However, gradually, especially because of a concerted effort from government and business, an all-island philosophy became embedded in economic policy across this island.
That was the case until June 23
2016; that is, the date of the Brexit referendum.
From that day to this, the entire concept of an all-island economy has fallen by the wayside.
In the scramble to make sense of where we go from here, it seems sight has been lost as to the incredible advantages that could accrue from deeper coordination across the border.
No longer do we hear government ministers extol the virtues of the all-island economy.
However, how could we expect to hear anything from the North, given the fact that there is no Executive in place?
While business leaders in the south have done their best to highlight the ongoing regression in cross-border connections, their Northern counterparts have been relatively silent on the subject.
This isn’t surprising given the lack of direction coming from their political leaders there.
The fact is that until we know the final outcome of the Brexit negotiations, nothing will happen to continue the excellent work which happened across the board in the last ten years or so in regard to cross-border cooperation. It’s
ironic that it is only now that the penny is dropping in Westminster, that, leaving aside all the issues regarding tariffs and duties, the border issue goes to the core of the difficulties for the UK in extracting itself, and Northern Ireland, from the EU.
In the last year or so, much has been made as to how to deal with the difficulty of the hundreds of land border crossings.
Very little has been mentioned regarding, possibly, an even more difficult nut to crack, and that is: how to deal with the border crossings across the waters of Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle?
Where the actual line of the border is, in both of these loughs, has been a source of dispute between the UK and Irish governments, as far back as partition.
Irish governments have always maintained that, under our Constitution, we have jurisdiction over all of the waters of the loughs, right up to the waterline on the northern side.
The UK government, on the other hand, citing a 350-year-old charter, maintains its claim to the whole of Lough Foyle but,
bizarrely, claims only half of Carlingford Lough. Indeed, during the Troubles, the British navy parked a gunboat permanently in Carlingford Lough, checking on every vessel entering the inlet. They were able to do this because their imaginary line down the middle of the lough meant that the only entrance into the lough was on the Northern side of the line.
Famously, the most high-profile ‘boarding’ incident, by the British navy, was when they tried to board Charlie Haughey’s yacht Celtic Mist as it attempted to go into Carlingford Harbour, on the south side. In less troubled times, with demilitarisation and with the navy gunboat gone, all has been calm.
BUT, still, there remained the unresolved issues of who owns what waters. And this has been made even more difficult with the Brexit vote. Nowadays, pleasure craft cross over and back from one side to the other. What happens to them? Will they have to be checked? The owners and the
operators of the new ferry across Carlingford Lough are at a loss to know what lies ahead for their venture, given the possibility of customs checks.
The always thorny issue of fishing rights has also been made even more difficult, despite the fact that the Loughs Agency, set up after the Good Friday Agreement as one of the six cross-border bodies, was designed to coordinate all activities on Carlingford Lough and Lough Foyle.
The much-awaited Narrow Water Bridge proposed for the top of Carlingford Lough is even further away because of the Brexit vote.
The practical problems as to how to deal with Carlingford Lough and Foyle Lough postBrexit were not high on the agenda of the European leaders meeting in Salzburg this week.
However, these type of local issues, affecting people in the border areas on a day-to-day basis, are the lifeblood of improved cross-border cooperation over the last ten to 15 years.
Alas, it will take years to resurrect these progressive moves, even if the dust settles after the difficult meeting in Salzberg.