Ophelia showed us how we should be responding to the Brexit storm

YOU can’t change the weather, but you can certainly prepare for it. No one has control over Ireland’s meteorological conditions, but this week the Government seized the opportunity to turn a challenging situation to its advantage by playing to its strengths. In doing so, it might have arrived upon a formula for how Ireland Inc might come together in a better way to prepare ourselves for the tempest that is Brexit.

Weathering Ophelia, the worst storm in more than 50 years, the Government and its agencies delivered a commanding performance in co-ordinating a concerted response. By communicating its messages before, during and after the storm, it avoided a lot more potential damage and maybe even saved lives.

Using an impressive army of assembled, invested, informed personnel, the Government portrayed a feeling of complete control in the one area where there is absolutely no control to be had – the weather. It was no small achievement.

Impressive emergency efforts were enhanced as household names like Met Éireann’s Evelyn Cusack populated response rooms. Imposing screens with ominous, looming real-time weather patterns provided portentous backdrops for hourly news as we waited for the next instalment.

More than 100 personnel from across a range of Government departments and State agencies were filmed as they mobilised as a collective unit to alleviate public concerns and co-ordinate appropriate responses. Their first objective – inform the public. Because an informed public is largely a more secure one.

Headed by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the ensemble provided the biggest comfort blanket the country has ever seen. Having raided the nearest supermarket of all its contents, we took to our couches with gusto. Netflix Armageddon commenced as we battened down the hatches, safe in the knowledge that the Government had our backs.

Imagine, then, if the Government applied the same principle to our Brexit conundrum. Oh Lord, if only we knew the ramifications and dangers of Brexit on the horizon. If only there were some red alert warnings to ready us for the potential dangers.

In truth, those dangers are well documented, the antidotes less so.

If the frightening and fascinating scenarios outlined in RTÉ Europe editor Tony Connelly’s exceptional new book ‘Brexit and Ireland’ were not enough to put the wind up us all, Big Phil Hogan blew into the debate with some fresh new warnings of his own.

Launching the book in Brussels, Ireland’s Commissioner to Europe cautioned “Brexiteers are hooked on brinkmanship” – signalling yet another diplomatic siren, as if we needed one.

To a domestic audience it may have seemed like Phil Hogan was donning the green jersey. In fact, his message was straight out of the pocket book of the Brussels European Commission’s bureaucratic guiding principles – Europe first, country later.

Ahead of the two-day EU summit in Brussels to discuss the continuing impasse in the Brexit negotiations, the message from the commission to the world was as simple as it was clear. The 27 remaining member states are unified in the belief that there is life beyond Brexit.

But what is Ireland’s message to the world? Repeatedly, we are told that there are Herculean efforts behind the scenes to ensure that our priorities are advanced through diplomatic channels and political manoeuvrings. After that, ambiguity is the only arresting feature of our ambitions.

The reason this week’s emergency response efforts to Ophelia were so effective was because they were frequent, they had credibility and, most importantly, they were highly visible. While the Government provided an overarching prescience to the proceedings, its efforts were impressively supplemented by people who already had established credibility in their own respective areas of expertise.

Why not then assemble a collection of dedicated people who could work with the Government to guard against the potential dangers that lie ahead for Ireland in relation to Brexit? In addition to defending our position, we could look to individuals who are capable of evaluating and exploiting any opportunities that may arise from the sorry saga.

This can only be done by including people who have garnered significant global experience already, and have lucrative contacts, which can be used to our advantage.

The Government should have learned this week that having the right people around the table makes a huge difference. Are we really saying that the best opportunity to secure our future lies in the hands of a few politicians who happen to be in Cabinet right now?

THE current national vehicle for Brexit’s preparations is the All Island Civic Dialogue forum. A massive collection of political parties, local authorities amd interest groups. It smacks of a clunky, old-fashioned, outdated model which appears destined to muse over issues rather than plan any strategic dynamic action.

Where Brexit is concerned, not all the solutions can come from politicians. The many industries that will be affected require detailed and specific knowledge.

As a nation, we are much too quick to turn our back on the wealth of knowledge and experience that is available to us on tap from the world of politics, business, enterprise and technology.

Even if this Government feels constrained by party loyalties, at the very least John Bruton, Enda Kenny, and others should be called upon to utilise experience and European political connections.

In addition, massive, highly successful, multi-billion dollar companies are not just on our door step, they are based right in our living room. Google, Twitter, Pfizer, Facebook, Microsoft – the list is lengthy.

Instead of simply enticing those companies to stay in our country for economic reasons,

Are we really saying that the best opportunity to secure our future lies in the hands of a few politicians who happen to be in Cabinet right now?

why not use their expertise to enhance our strategies? Indigenous success stories like CRH, Kerry Group, Musgrave Group, and (as long as we are not planning on making pilot rostering a large part of our plan) Ryanair should also be employed. Get everyone in to battle – this is economic and geopolitical warfare.

This is the moment when the deep, specialist knowledge of our officials needs to be joined at the hip with a network that only the Irish have.

Ireland is not a priority for the UK. Nor are we a priority for the EU. The only people we are a priority for is ourselves. Why then not use the best people available to us to secure our own future?

When planning our responses to Ophelia, at least we had something to benchmark ourselves against. A violent storm 50 years ago that ravaged an under-prepared and exposed island. Where Brexit is concerned there is no comparison, it is a once-in-alifetime storm, not of our making. However, this generation will be responsible for managing the consequences.

A tempest of political tumult continues to brew across the waves. An intriguing political twister born in a storm of latent political opportunism and reckless political ambition in the UK hangs like a spectre over our fortunes. Brexit merits an emergency response that plans for even the most unpalatable of scenarios.

Bob Dylan opined “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

No, you don’t, but this week proved it’s still handy having them around when the storms are raging all around you.

A dedicated emergency response unit for Brexit might not be as crazy as it sounds.