Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PSNI CHIEF’S BREXIT WARNING ON PEACE
Dissidents will exploit hard border
THE PSNI chief has warned a hard Brexit will have a “detrimental” impact on the peace process.
Simon Byrne painted a stark picture of a potential worst-case scenario of farms and agricultural businesses going bust, animals being culled and unrest.
The chief constable’s warning came a day after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar predicted the UK was facing decades of economic decline following Brexit.
Speaking in Belfast, Mr Byrne was asked if a hard Brexit would have a negative impact on the peace process.
He said: “Absolutely detrimental. There is a small number of people – bearing in mind how many people live happily and peacefully here – but a small number of people intent on disruption and causing really serious harm. I think we are worried that in the short term a hard Brexit will create a vacuum which becomes a rally call and recruiting ground for dissident republicans and clearly any rise in their popularity or their capability would be very serious. Mr Byrne said his officers were having talks with senior civil servants to “make plain” the PSNI’s concerns.
He added: “On specifics if we have a hard border the question I
have for London, frankly, is how do we police that? You’ll know how many crossings there are between the two countries, nearly 300 – and that’s the official ones. So I think it raises a whole raft of issues around smuggling.
“If we go into the worst-case scenario apart from the policing dimension my personal concern is for example understanding the effects on agriculture here, which so important.
“If tariffs change and drop we will see the prospect of animals being culled and people going out of business, that may lead to unrest and we having to protect other agencies as we go to support new arrangements.”
In an interview on Friday, Mr Varadkar told Newstalk radio that the UK would “fall into relative economic decline for many decades, probably be overtaken by France again”.