Former Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton has said Ireland should keep alive the possibility of Britain abandoning its Brexit plan, or rejoining the European Union once it leaves.
The Brexit strategy set out so far by British prime minister Theresa May would “do incalculable damage to this island, politically, emotionally and economically”, he said.
Supported by the former Fianna Fáil minister for foreign affairs Dermot Ahern, Mr Bruton told the Seanad’s Select Committee on Brexit: “We cannot simply wait for this to happen.”
Stark threat
The threat posed by the UK’s exit is so stark that Ireland should try to influence other European Union states to leave pre-2015 membership terms “on the table” for the UK.
A crucial issue will be for the European Council to determine the “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” governing the UK’s exit – an issue to which he gave the acronym “Batna”.
Mr Bruton said if the UK did not put forward a responsible “best available alternative”, then the remaining 27 EU countries should do so, guided, he believed, by Ireland.
In his view, he said, the “best available alternative to a negotiated agreement” that the EU side should adopt is an offer of continuing UK membership of the EU.
Smuggling
Mr Ahern said the “bad old days” of large-scale Border smuggling could return, particularly since tariff-caused price differences could give smugglers a major incentive, he said.
However, Queens University Belfast professor of human rights law Colin Harvey told the Senators that the Good Friday Belfast Agreement had recognised the “special status” of Northern Ireland.
Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, expressed concern about an “anti-human rights agenda” which, he said, is being promoted by the British press.
