Taoiseach heads to Brussels to fight for Ireland’s interests
THE Taoiseach flies out to Brussels tomorrow for Brexit crisis talks as his Government admits a ‘dangerous moment’ that threatens Irish prosperity is at hand.
Enda Kenny’s key priorities when meeting EU leaders are maintaining trade with the UK, guaranteeing free movement of people between the UK and Ireland, and maintaining the relationship with the Northern Ireland Executive.
And the Dáil is being recalled for a special session on the Brexit today while all eyes will be on the stock markets amid the threat of further upheavals.
Elsewhere, Irish embassies are expecting a rush of passport enquiries from this morning, with claims that there has been an increase of up to a fifth from British-based applicants this year.
In Brussels this week, Mr Kenny will seek to persuade his fellow EU leaders that Britain needs to be given time to prepare a new administration, and that the formal withdrawal process should only start under a new prime minister from October at the earliest.
The Government chief whip has also warned that it is ‘bang out of order’ to threaten Britain with an accelerated form of expulsion as some EU leaders have called for.
Ireland will be looking to key officials to promote breathing space all round, as well as urging that the pause button be pressed on any further integration.
The EU’s former top civil servant, Irishwoman Catherine Day, is still working as a pro-bono adviser to European Council President Claude Juncker as a member of his inner office, and her counsel is considered vital. Another linchpin is Karen Banks, deputy director general of legal services for the EU, whose interpretations could be of major value to Ireland, while David O’Sullivan is head of station at the EU mission in Washington DC.
Ireland will also lobby behind the scenes for representation on the EU’s negotiation team for the British departure. ‘Irish officials are already very busy but the whole thing is a ghastly prospect,’ a top insider said. ‘It’s like your husband coming home and saying he hasn’t been happy for a long time and is now leaving for someone else – but he’d like to have the summer to look around for a nice apartment. The immediate reaction would be “Here’s your bag, go live with your girlfriend.” There has been a bit of that anger in the EU reaction so far. Ireland wants to slow things down and let tempers cool.’
She added: ‘Ireland would want what the UK wants – but what does the UK actually want? Nobody knows yet, and there are just so many variables.’
Meanwhile sources in Dublin are saying that Ireland’s minority Government means that this country is not in ‘a particularly strong position’ to deal trenchantly with other countries that could seek to gang up on Britain.
But Chief Whip Regina Doherty said yesterday: ‘The message that is coming out of Europe, this business of trying to teach the UK a lesson, is bang out of order.’
And Green Party TD Catherine Martin said her party believed now was the time to ‘press the pause button and to take stock’.
Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said the Government will work ‘to ensure that key elements of our economy continue to work and to be protected’.
He added: ‘There will be multiple challenges that our country will have to deal with – the maintenance of the Common Travel Area, our trade with Britain, our relationship with the North of Ireland, and the position of Irish communities in the UK.’
But Education Minister Richard Bruton claimed Ireland had real influence. He said: ‘We are very well placed, because we understand the challenges the British now face, and Europe’s own views on these matters. We need to manage all of this so that there is no sudden change in our position in Ireland,’ he declared on The Week in Politics on RTÉ One.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Mr Donohoe said Ireland was opposed to Britain being rapidly forced out.
He told RTÉ Radio’s This Week: ‘The Taoiseach was clear on Friday morning... that the Article 50 mechanism should be triggered by the British Government themselves at a point of their choosing. We welcome what Angela Merkel has said, that this needs to be dealt with in a careful way.’
The EU Commission clarified yesterday that the formal notice was a
‘A bit of anger in the EU’
matter for Britain alone, and it also emerged that the two-year anticipated negotiation period could be extended by a further one year.
‘At the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the UK will not be there,’ Mr Donohoe said. ‘But it is important that we use the platform there to create a framework whereby Brexit can be dealt with. This is something that creates uncertainty and volatility for Ireland in the medium term, but we have coped with challenges like this in the past.’
He noted that the political situation in the UK was changing almost hourly.
The British Cabinet will meet today, he noted, adding: ‘The challenge we will all face is that in order to be clearer, we need a functioning British government for that to happen.
‘We will have high-level contacts between British and Irish officials this week, but we do need to allow the British a little time to allow their government to sort things out. However the Irish Government in Brussels this week will be very clear on the importance of four things – the single market, the free movement of people between the UK and Ireland, the position of Northern Ireland, and the future of the European Union.’
Next week the Government meets with the Northern Ireland Executive to discuss what the future relationship will be on the island of Ireland, he added.
Mr Donohoe said: ‘The priorities for Ireland will be how we negotiate to defend our own positions. We will do all we can to preserve our national interests.’
‘We need to give the British time’