Brexit psychosis ensures that ‘any other business’ is forgotten about

Government’s focus on the crisis has left too little time for it to focus on other major national issues, writes Liam Weeks

‘Brexit seems to demand the attention of Government all day, every day’

THE esteemed British Medical Journal, not the first publication to which political scholars usually turn, published a case study report by Dr Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu of the Institute of Mental Health in the University of Nottingham this week.

Titled ‘Acute transient psychotic disorder precipitated by Brexit vote’, the paper concerned a singular case of Brexit-induced psychosis.

The case involved a 40-something man admitted to his local accident and emergency department in the UK three weeks after the Brexit referendum vote in June 2016.

Showing signs of agitation, confusion and disorder, the man attempted to dig through the floor of the hospital with his hands to “get the hell out of this place”.

Suffering from paranoia, hallucinations and delusions, all brought on by the Brexit vote, the patient was diagnosed with acute and transient psychotic disorder (ATPD), a form of mental and behavioural disorder, or psychosis.

The patient’s own perspective of these episodes was of “intense periods of accelerated thinking, of being distracted and consumed by my own thoughts, and of a series of theatrical episodes of which I am at the centre”.

The consequence of this disorder was that the patient’s work and family life suffered, as he was not able to function adequately, and had to be admitted to a psychiatric ward on medication for two weeks.

Time away from Brexit helped the patient make a full recovery, but the case highlighted the potential ramifications of Brexit for our politicians. Unlike the patient, they cannot escape Brexit. While the medical case might be extreme, we need to ask if our political elite have been able to avoid ATPD, or indeed any negative reactions brought on by Brexit.

Have they been suffering from intense periods of accelerated thinking? Have they been distracted and consumed by their own thoughts? It is hard to imagine Brexit has not had some kind of malign impact.

What the British Medical Journal report highlighted was the dangers of obsession with Brexit. It also showed we are mistaken to be solely focused on what happens post-Brexit. We have been complacent about the ramifications of Brexit that are already happening right now.

That’s not to say our politicians have been experiencing hallucinations or delusions. Hopefully that hasn’t been the case, but can we say they have been able to function properly in office since the Brexit vote? Britain has lost two prime ministers since then, and we have already lost one Taoiseach.

The daily agenda Leo Varadkar now has to face is surely very different to that of his predecessor Enda Kenny when he first took office in 2011, or even when he was re-elected Taoiseach a month before the Brexit referendum.

And this is the real cost of Brexit. It may not have resulted in bouts of psychosis within the Government, but the obsession with it has impacted on our ministers’ ability to deal with other policy areas.

Brexit now seems to demand the attention of the Government all day, every day. But is this correct? Should it be the Government’s sole preoccupation?

One of the consequences for the patient with Brexit psychosis was that he was unable to deal with other pressing areas in his life. For our Government, these are plenty. Some of the many it needs to address include domestic crises in housing, health and education, not to mention international developments.

There are many ways in which the Government’s ability to deal with these matters has been affected by Brexit, but the most obvious has been its impact on their time. This is what economists would describe as the opportunity cost of Brexit. It refers to the cost of choosing one action over another.

You don’t need me to remind you of the difficulties the Government is having in addressing the lack of adequate housing stock, and its knock-on effects for soaring rents, housing lists, and the homeless. And what about the lack of investment in our Defence Forces which led to President Higgins’s recent comments on their inadequate salary structure?

Or the underfunding of third-level education, where our universities continue to slip down the world rankings?

Need I mention the health services, where it seems no amount of money is able to rectify its ills?

Politics is a zero-sum game, and time spent on Brexit means less spent on other matters. But how much time?

Would it be useful to be told what items civil servants have been scratching from the agenda of Cabinet and departmental meetings because of Brexit? And what issues and policies have been receiving less attention?

The National Broadband Plan and the National Children’s Hospital have not been the focus of much coverage over the past few months, but it doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. Nor does it mean their costs haven’t been spiralling in the meantime.

And what about the €14bn in back taxes from Apple still sitting in an escrow account? The Comptroller and Auditor General told us this week that with the onset of negative interest rates, this fund is set to decline by €70m a year. So, if and when the Government ever decides to access this account, who knows how many hundreds of millions will have been lost.

These are just a handful of issues, but there are no doubt many others that have escaped the attention of Government because of Brexit. Obsessing over the future consequences of a hard border, of a border down the Irish Sea, or over the trading relationship with the UK all comes at a cost.

Hopefully, none of our politicians have been admitted to psychiatric wards, but we should not be too naive to think their capabilities and attention spans have not been affected by Brexit.

We know the effects the recent economic recession had on politicians who had to deal with the banks on the verge of collapse, European Central Bank threats, and a potentially bankrupt economy.

The cure for the patient in the UK was to wean himself off Brexit. While this may not be an option for our Government, it can certainly devote more time to other pressing issues. This may be good not just for their own health, but also that of our economy.