We don’t want to plan for hard border – Leo
MINISTERS have not made any contingency plans for a hard border as the Government does not want it to become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’, the Taoiseach has said.
For more than a year, Leo Varadkar has insisted a cliffedge Brexit is the ‘least likely’ outcome of talks between the European Union and the UK.
But that mood has changed with fewer than 100 days to go before Britain’s scheduled departure.
Ireland’s no-deal contingency plans, published this week, deal with 45 key areas which will require drastic action and emergency legislation – but make no provision for the potential return of a hard border.
Mr Varadkar said: ‘We are not preparing for a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. We have made no preparations whatsoever for physical infrastructure or anything like that. We certainly don’t want it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.’
His comments echoed those of Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, who said publishing contingency plans could give the impression that the border issue could be solved easily.
‘For us to be giving any signals that there are other ways in which this can be solved easily would be wrong and foolish at this stage,’ Mr Coveney told Today With Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1.
‘I said last night, in the absence of a backstop and a deal, preventing physical infrastructure on this island will be very difficult, very complicated and will involve hard choices.’
The Taoiseach said the best way for a hard border to be avoided was for the UK to approve the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement that was negotiated over last two years. However, without a majority of MPs in favour of it in the House of Commons, that prospect remains unlikely and this has heightened fears of a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Varadkar said: ‘We want to work with the UK and our EU partners to secure agreement of the Withdrawal Agreement, which of course not only guarantees that there won’t be a hard border, it guarantees there will never be a hard border. That’s why it is such an important treaty.’
He said issues over the border would only likely arise if and when the UK begins to diverge from EU regulations and standards.
‘As I say, the whole principle of avoiding a hard border can only be achieved with a deal and it is customs divergence which would create the problem,’ he said.
‘But if you don’t have alignment on customs and regulations, then you get into real difficulties. If the UK crashed out of the European Union at the end of March, they would still be aligned on customs and regulations.’
In such a scenario, the Taoiseach said talks would be needed with the UK and the EU to examine ways to keep the border open.
He said: ‘We have had some of those discussions already and there is a real understanding across the EU that this isn’t a typical border, that this is a border that goes through villages, goes through farms, goes through businesses and of course is a border
‘Self-fulfilling prophecy’ ‘People need to think carefully’
that people fought and killed other people over as well.’
Mr Coveney said Britain had made commitments to protect the Good Friday Agreement, ‘which is why the backstop and the deal that’s on the table need to be passed’. He added: ‘People need to think very carefully about the consequences of not doing it.’
But Fianna Fáil Brexit spokeswoman Lisa Chambers said of the contingency plan: ‘There is very little that is new, and what is most concerning is the fact that it contains no financial plans at all.
‘Based on this latest document, it would appear as if we will not be prepared for the no-deal scenario. The priority... has been to stagemanage the publicity surrounding this document rather than the content of the document itself.’ Comment – Page 16 james.ward@dailymail.ie