Irish deny plan for hard border

IRELAND has no plans to start preparing infrastructure for a possible hard border with Northern Ireland, the Irish foreign minister has said, despite the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, stating it would be “very difficult” to avoid one in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Simon Coveney said that if it looked as though Britain were heading towards a no-deal departure from the European Union then direct discussions on how to avoid a hard border would be required, but he denied emergency plans were being put in place.

“What we are not doing is putting contingency plans in place that would result in border infrastructure between the two jurisdictions on this island. Surely we have learnt lessons from the past,” Mr Coveney said at his Fine Gael party’s annual conference.

His comments appeared to contradict those made by his party leader.

“I think in a no-deal scenario it would be very difficult to avoid a hard border because of the obvious fact that, Ireland remaining part of the European Union, would no doubt be asked to implement European Union law,” Mr Varadkar said.

The United Kingdom, in turn, would be likely to be required by the World Trade Organisation to enforce its own border in Northern Ireland, he added.

“So those hard Brexiteers who say that just through good political will you could avoid a hard border, that doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“Are they really saying they would join the World Trade Organisation and the first thing they would do is to refuse to implement its rules?”

Mr Varadkar added that he did not see any scope for renegotiating the deal unless the British Government delayed its exit beyond March 29, something it has repeatedly ruled out.

“I think it is very hard to start making amendments without everyone wanting to make amendments and you could see the whole thing unravel,” he said.

While Dublin has prepared and begun triggering contingency plans for changes to trade with mainland Britain, including the hiring of 1,000 customs officials, it has consistently said it will make no such plans for infrastructure on the land border, and Mr Coveney insisted that remained the case.