Minister Leo Varadkar admits that the North West will be worst affected by Brexit.
Speaking on Ocean FM today, the Fine Gael Minister says it’s clear from what has been outlined by Theresa May that Britain is only interested in itself and does not have Ireland’s interests at heart.
He says we must do the same and have a strong voice in the negotiations with the 27 EU member states.
Minister Varadkar says the indication of a ‘hard Brexit’ is very unwelcome.
He says the government will remain calm but not complacent about the ‘unprecedented’ challenges that are ahead in the Brexit negotiations:
Terry Hughes, owner of TJ Hughes service station says his premises is partly in the north and in the republic.
He says it’s difficult to know how this will affect businesses like his own:
Retired Garda Henry Rogers was based as a border garda in Blacklion during his career.
He says a hard Brexit opens a whole new challenge for monitoring movement across the border and is likely to put more pressure on Garda resources in the republic:
Declan Fearon of the Border Communities Against Brexit campaign agrees and says the reestablishment of any border is a step backwards.
He says just last week they attended the Good Friday agreement committee meeting in Leinster House.
They made known that they don’t want ‘any return’ to the border and they will continue to make their views known to government and especially at a european level through MEPs.
Mr. Fearon says in many ways yesterday’s speech was a realisation of their worst fears:
