TIME TO FACE TRUTH ABOUT HOW WE’LL MANAGE HARD BORDER

YOU don’t need to see the news helicopters over Westminster to know the Brexit crisis is deepening, events moving as fast as the rotor blades. This makes it all the more unsettling our Government should roll out enough legislation to carpet the M50 to cope with a no-deal Brexit, without countenancing a hard Border.

We have had 30 months of scenario planning, the issue dominating the agenda at every turn. Yet with the prospect of a hard Border closer than ever, our Government inexplicably did not see fit to address it in any meaningful terms.

On RTÉ radio yesterday, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty confided: “Things are getting very real...”

Or perhaps not real enough: or at least not as far as handling a doomsday scenario goes.

Instead of a Government minister, picture Jack Nicholson in ‘A Few Good Men’ roaring: “The truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

For this seems to be the cue the Government has taken; yet keeping the public in the dark is not an option. The appalling vista is now staring us in the face. Looking the other way can not be part of the sequencing.

The Taoiseach is putting himself and the Government in a preposterous position. Insisting there are no contingencies for a hard Border, while recruiting 200 extra customs officers, is absurd.

What happens to trucks carrying goods across the ‘non-Border’, ‘hard Border’ or ‘soft Border’ should the UK crash out?

Lives and livelihoods depend on an answer.

The EU can’t countenance an unpoliced and unprotected gaping hole on the frontier of the world’s biggest trading bloc. It is not expecting too much to be briefed on what our approach might be to managing our Border, for that’s what it will be, should the EU and UK sit down to discuss what would be the worst of all possible outcomes on April 1.

Insisting on strict radio silence on the issue is therefore disingenuous.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney yesterday said: “Simply put, as a result of a lot of hard work, my only desire is to see this legislation sit on the shelf.” We share Mr Coveney’s fervent hope, but wishful thinking will not protect us.

On past form, we can’t trust Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn to deliver us.

There are dawning signs the Labour Party, and significant numbers of Conservative MPs, are preparing to make an intervention. But it may be too little, too late.

Mr Coveney is quite right – a hard Brexit would be “a major shock” to the economies of EU member states.

But a hard Border would be a disaster for Ireland, and we need to be told how it might be managed.

Keeping the public in the dark is not an option. The appalling vista is now staring us in the face