Uncertainty over, let’s get to work

THE pick-up in the markets following the result of the British general election does not suggest that the markets love Brexit. Rather it is the removal of the uncertainty that has hung over the entire EU, but especially over this country for the last three and a half years, that is important.

That uncertainty has been the reason given by Fianna Fail for the continuation of a confidence and supply agreement with the Government that many feel has long passed its sellby date. Certainly there seems to be a groundswell of opinion in all parties now, including the Fine Gael party which has been kept in office by that agreement, that the time has come for an election.

Both the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin are still sticking to the view that April/ May is the optimum time for an election, and it is hard to see what great electoral advantage would accrue to either party or indeed to any of the smaller parties, by bringing forward that timetable to February, as has been widely speculated.

It could be argued that while we now know that Brexit will go ahead on the basis of the deal the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, negotiated with the rest of the EU, we should not be under any illusion that that will in any way conclude the process. The present Irish Government and its successor must be fully engaged in whatever trade deal — if any — is worked out now between the UK and the EU post-Brexit. An early election would facilitate having a fresh team in place to begin and continue that work.

And as the confusion on the issue throughout the British election campaign shows, there is still much clarity to be brought to the Northern Ireland situation and its boundaries with the Republic and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Freed from the clutches of the DUP and his own European Research Group, by the “stonking mandate” his majority of 80 seats provides, Mr Johnson may seek to effect a soft exit from the EU, and keep Britain in the customs union, in the knowledge that while the first-past-the-post electoral system returned a pro Brexit government, a majority of voters backed remain candidates. If so, he will be doing this country a great favour, though whatever the outcome in this regard, we will not find Brexit painless. And we cannot forget, and nor can Mr Johnson forget, that he owes much of his success to the Eurosceptic right wing in his own party.

North of the Border, Sinn Fein has clutched the two new SDLP MPs to its nationalist bosom, to bolster its demand for a border poll in the hope that this will put Northern Ireland on an exit path from the UK, similar to that being sought by the SNP for Scotland. Unfortunately there seems to be rather less enthusiasm for a return to Stormont, despite the fact that both Sinn Fein and the DUP must be aware that their election performances have been adversely affected by the continued failure to provide their constituents with a government, on the basis of disagreement over an Irish Language Act and “legacy issues”. Meanwhile, bread and butter issues such as the state of the health service are left to languish unattended. Neither party can afford to allow this state of affairs to continue much longer, so we can probably expect a return to a devolved power-sharing administration soon.

Similarly in the Republic it can been said that the uncertainty of Brexit has taken the full attention of the Government away from the problems in the health service, the housing crisis and the scandal of the homeless. And whether our next government comes into office in a matter of weeks or months, it must commit fully to these priorities from day one. For it is on these issues that our next general election is likely to be decided.