No immediate change to South’s ‘invisible’ border, says Flanagan
FOREIGN Affairs minister Charlie Flanagan yesterday admitted that the future for Ireland’s ‘invisible border’ between north and south is ‘uncertain’ as it was now an ‘EU frontier’.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Saturday With Claire Byrne, Mr Flanagan pointed out that the border would not change immediately following the Brexit result, but he added that Britain’s vote was ‘not the outcome that we hoped for’.
Mr Flanagan referred to outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments that formal negotiations to leave the EU would be left to his successor.
‘It’s important to point out that the result of these negotiations will not be [apparent] for a period of two years,’ Mr Flanagan said.
RTÉ’s stand-in host Brian Dowling referred to Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s comments that there was increasing pressure within the EU to strengthen external borders and that could pose ‘particular difficulties’ here with our border.
Mr Flanagan said the ‘word used was “could” and that’s important’.
He said it was stated clearly during the campaign that there would ‘not be any impact on the border’, and that Northern Secretary of State Theresa Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan Villiers’s position on Friday was that ‘there will not be a change to the border having regard to the Common Travel Area’.
‘Any change to the invisible border we currently have… has got to be delicately handled. This is an issue we will be strongly prioritising in defence of what is a very important strategic national interest for us.’
On the prospect of a vote on the break-up of the UK, he said: ‘Any further referendums in Northern Ireland or anywhere would cause a greater level of division than we have now’ and would therefore be ‘particularly unhelpful’.