THE NEW BORDER

... at least according to the overfertile imagination of UK Brexit Secretary, David Davis

PROPOSALS for a ‘buffer zone’ along the border have been greeted with alarm by many business owners in the area.

The plan, being drawn up by British Brexit Minister David Davis, would give the North joint EU and UK status, allowing it to trade freely with the EU and Britain.

The ‘Double-Hatted solution’ is based on a system in Liechtenstein but John McGrane of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce described it as ‘bonkers’ and said it had ‘no substance’.

A 10-mile ‘special economic zone’ would also be created along the 310-mile border, allowing local traders operate under the Republic’s rules, thus avoiding checks.

Ironically, it would see DUP leader Arlene Foster’s home lie within the ‘buffer zone’, along with Newry, Enniskillen and Derry. Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins said the proposal ‘simply wouldn’t work’.

The plan is understood to be under consideration in Britain as a potential way of breaking the deadlock over fears of a hard border, ahead of a crunch summit of EU leaders on June 28-29. Mr McGrane said: ‘It is purely fanciful at this stage to think that the idea of some sort of moving border solves a problem which needs a much greater degree of seriousness in its resolution.’

Some businesses feel it would lead to further divisions. In Enniskillen, Fintan O’Doherty of O’Doherty Fine Meats queried how it would work, particularly when business suppliers fall outside the zone. ‘If there’s going to be something that will affect them, that’s going to have an effect on us as well,’ he said.

‘If it does come into place, obviously for people outside the buffer zone, it could cause a bit of friction between us and them. And we don’t like to be in an us-or-them situation.’.

Maureen McGhee, of No.19 Craft & Design, in Derry, wondered how it would impact upon many people who work in Derry, but live in Donegal.

‘I’d like to see a solution but I can’t see how they are going to solve it because nobody seems to be coming up with a workable solution,’ she said.

Ken Park, of Walled City Books in Derry, said: ‘It just sounds like a lot of silly nonsense to cover up the fact that nobody has a clue how to achieve that end.’ He added: ‘When there’s any confusion, any tourists coming from down the south will just not cross that line and therefore the city of Derry and Derry businesses is going to suffer.’ And the DUP MP Sammy Wilson called the proposals ‘contradictory.

He said: ‘These convoluted arrangements only arise because of the [British] government’s failure to make it clear to the EU that, regardless of Barnier and EU negotiators’ attempts to keep us in the Customs Union and the Single Market, we are leaving it.’

Sinn Féin dismissed the alleged plan as ‘pie in the sky thinking completely divorced from the realities on the ground’. The Alliance Party said it sounded like something which would be reported on April Fool’s Day.

Arlene Foster’s home would be in the zone