Border communities feel exposed at the way Brexit is lurching along

BREXIT remains as clear as mud and it seems everyone’s patience is wearing thin.

On Sunday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke on RTE Radio and said that we need clarity. That we are twenty months on from the Brexit referendum, that some of the euro-sceptic Tories are twenty years looking for Brexit and they and we are still no clearer as to what they want.

Last Wednesday the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Conveney TD was the keynote speaker at a Brexit Conference in the Carrickdale Hotel, which was jointly organised by Dundalk and Newry Chambers of Commerce.

While the Minister’s comments were very interesting it was also clear, that we are staggering about in the dark and that no one really knows the true consequences of Brexit.

Just last week we had the spectre of a hard border again brought to the fore when Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator stated that a hard border was unavoidable if the UK left the Customs Union.

The speech follows a pattern which has been evident since the Brexit result.

We seem to make progress in one direction, narrow down the options and then one of the protagonists makes a speech or comments in the media which re-opens issues we thought were resolved.

Just before Christmas, when the UK Government and the EU reached agreement on phase one of their separation talks, you might have been forgiven for thinking that the fear of a hard-border on this island was removed.

Following Michel Barnier’s comments last week and furious responses from hard Brexiteers in the UK, the likelihood of a hard-border cannot be easily dismissed.

Those attending the conference last week were advised to Brexit-proof their business and to plan for all outcomes of the negotiations.

That is just complete nonsense.

It is all well and good in theory, but how are small and medium enterprises right along the border supposed to find the time, the resources and the expertise to plan for all eventualities from a process which so complicated and which not even those at the negotiating table appear to know in which direction they are headed.

Brexit is a real danger to the Irish economy and could wipeout all the progress made in the last couple of years, but border regions and towns such as Dundalk are really vulnerable.

We really do fell exposed and are concerned that we could be left high and dry when the final settlement is reached, whether that is a deal or no deal.

I am not convinced that the people speaking on our behalf get that.