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Ireland steps up cross-border plans for no-deal Brexit


Ireland has stepped up talks with Brussels over how to make checks on cross-border trade in the case of a no-deal Brexit, warning of “stark” implications for the country if Britain crashed out of the EU in the autumn.

Simon Coveney, deputy Irish premier, said the no-deal risk was now “for real” with just months until the October 31 deadline when Britain is set to leave the EU.

“A no-deal Brexit, if that’s the choice of the British government, will fundamentally disrupt the free movement of goods in a seamless way as we enjoy today,” said Mr Coveney. 

The UK’s Brexit minister meanwhile warned that Ireland would be harder hit by a no-deal outcome than Britain, saying that the economic threat would motivate Brussels and Dublin to engage with a new British leader’s renegotiation demands.

Ireland was discussing with the European Commission how to “limit to the greatest extent possible what we need to do” to protect EU single market rules, he said.

Dublin wants to keep the border open to protect the 1998 Good Friday peace pact that ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. It fears the reinstatement of border installations, which were removed under the deal, would create targets for dissident Irish republican paramilitaries.

Mr Coveney said checks on animals and food would not take place on the border itself or close to it but he would not say whether they would be carried out in factories or farms, a logical place to conduct them in order to avoid any new border installations.

He also ruled out establishing a border zone to carry out checks, saying that would create a new frontier. 

Dublin was in a discussion with the commission “in terms of how we ensure that Ireland does not get dragged out of the single market” in a no-deal scenario, he said. The objective was to avoid creating a security risk on the border while reassuring other EU countries that goods from the Republic of Ireland met EU standards.

The Irish government still hopes to avoid the need for any checks because it believes the UK Brexit treaty — which includes the “backstop” to maintain frictionless trade with Northern Ireland — can still be passed by the House of Commons. 

Stephen Barclay, the UK’s Brexit minister, said after a meetings with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels that the “asymmetric” impact of a no-deal Brexit on the EU, with Ireland and other near neighbours set to suffer the most, meant it was “in the interests of both UK and Irish government to find a solution” to the impasse over Britain’s exit deal.

Boris Johns, the Conservative leadership frontrunner, has vowed to tear up the withdrawal deal that Theresa May agreed with the EU, removing “backstop” plans that would prevent a hard Irish border by tying Britain closely to EU rules and customs arrangements.

The EU has made clear that such demands are impossible, but Mr Barclay said that both sides had an incentive to negotiate.

“A no-deal outcome would be very damaging for Ireland,” he said. “If one looks, for example, 40 per cent of their exports go through Dover. So when I read an account saying that there will be queues at Dover, they will not just be queues with UK goods in, they will also be queues with 40 per cent of Irish exports.”

Mr Barclay’s remarks are a bid to counter EU warnings that the impact of a no-deal would be “proportionally much greater” for the UK than for the EU27. Brussels has pointed to IMF estimates that Britain’s economy would be hit seven times harder than the rest of the EU and slip into recession if it crashed out without a deal.

Ireland is the most exposed country in the EU to a fallout from a disorderly Brexit because of its deep trading links with Britain.

Ireland faces growing risks — 85,000 jobs are under threat in the medium term in a no-deal scenario, and forecasts suggest economic growth would halt. Despite that, Dublin has insisted there is no scope to reopen the Brexit treaty or change the backstop. 

Mr Coveney said: “Make no mistake: a no-deal Brexit is an ugly prospect. It will put many businesses and many people under a great deal of strain.” 



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