It’s time to work together on the key issues of trade, tourism and security

The EU will decide on whether or not there will be border controls between the Republic and the North and Declan Breathnach TD also says there will have to be some check on movement of goods between the two jurisdictions, otherwise a ‘smugglers’ haven’ will be created.

‘Once there is a difference in prices, there is an increase in smuggling,’ added Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on north-south bodies & cross-border co-operation.

‘Any fluctuations in the value of Sterling, unless there is a firm arrangement on taxation, will see a huge movement of people from the south, buying cheaper in the north.’

He doesn’t believe the M1 will be made redundant by border controls, ‘I can’t see it on the motorway, but it is foolish to think it couldn’t be.’

He said: ‘ We need to be focussed on the key issues of trade, and workers, north and south; and it is incumbent immediately on Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers to sit down to minimise the impact and to make sure the island can prosper, rather than be hindered.’

Mr Breathnach says he correctly predicted the outcome of the referendum, from what he picked up while canvassing with the SDLP in Northern Ireland.

‘I don’t believe the people realise what they have done,’ he said of those who voted to leave the EU.

However, he can’t see a repeat of what happened in this country with past referenda when two votes were taken until the ‘right’ result was achieved.

Neither does he believe would an Irish leader take the same course of action as David Cameron in stepping down after losing a such a vote.

The Louth TD was taken by the British prime minister’s speech last Friday. ‘He firmly believes it (to leave the EU was the wrong decision)’.

Peter Fitzpatrick says the impact on Dundalk and North Louth of the British vote will take some time to work out and has urged people here to ‘remain calm’.

The Fine Gael TD said it was his position that the new British prime minister should have time to get to grips with the situation and ‘Article 50’ which is from the Lisbon Treaty and sets out a rough framework for a country’s exit from the EU, should not be triggered immediately, despite calls from senior European figures to do so.

He said the talks about the state of the border with the North, the future of EU-funded cross-border structures and security issues ‘would take many months’, though he added that people living here had already seen ‘an immediate effect’ of Brexit through the fall in sterling.

The TD said he believed that Louth County Council have ‘a major part’ to play in how the county’s relationships with the North will be shaped.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: ‘People here should be calm. We should focus on working to keep the business, which has been built up through hard work over a number of very difficult years.

‘People in border areas are going to suffer because of this vote and I hope that projects already underway will continue and finish off what they started. There are many good cross border initiatives and we have to be calm in the aftermath and work together, but it is clear that we will need to have more support from Europe’.

In addition, Mr Fitzpatrick, who recently joined the Oireachtas Transport, Tourism and Sport committee, said far more needed to be done in terms of infrastructure and other improvements in order to help the Cooley and North Louth area to be promoted as a tourist destination.

‘We are going to need extra resources’, he said, adding he would continue to advocate the idea of ‘Ireland, the UK and the EU sitting down and working everything out’. He said: ‘ This is the time to work together’.