Irish officials ‘sensitising’ EU members to State’s Brexit difficulties

Irish Ministers and officials are successfully "sensitising" other European Union governments to the special difficulties Brexit creates for the country, Ireland's Ambassador to London has told MPs.

Dan Mulhall told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at the House of Commons that it was more important to find practical solutions than to secure a special EU status for Northern Ireland.

He said the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and other EU governments recognised the special circumstances of Northern Ireland and the Border.

“That implies that those circumstances need to be accommodated, need to be dealt with in ways that may require special arrangements to be made,” he said. “I would prefer to focus on special circumstances and find practical ways of dealing with those special circumstances.”

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Mr Mulhall cited EU programmes which support communities on both sides of the Border, suggesting their benefits could be maintained without seeking fundamental changes to basic EU structures.

“We would like to see the benefits from those programmes to be continued. So can we find a special set of arrangements that do not have systemic relevance but are such that they enable the benefits of those programmes to continue flowing to people on both sides of the Border?” he said.

The Ambassador was giving evidence a week after the committee heard from two experts on EU customs that there was no way of avoiding an extra administrative burden on cross-Border trade after Britain leaves the EU customs union.

Customs regime

Mr Mulhall acknowledged that “there will be some customs regime” but said Ireland would argue the regime on the Border should be less intrusive than any customs arrangement between Britain and the rest of the EU.

He expressed confidence that the Common Travel Area would survive Brexit without the need for significant changes and played down fears that EU migrants would use Ireland as a backdoor into Britain.

Responding to a question from Ulster Unionist MP Danny Kinahan, Mr Mulhall said that security co-operation between Britain and Ireland should be unaffected by Brexit.

He pointed out that Ireland enjoys an opt-out from EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) co-operation, which the Government could exercise if it conflicts with security arrangements between Britain and Ireland.

“Ireland would have the option to absent itself from that particular co-operation. We’re not obliged to be involved in all of the JHA areas,” he said.

Questioned by Independent Unionist Sylvia Hermon about the possibility of Ireland following Britain out of the EU, the Ambassador said there was no political constituency in Ireland for such a move.

“No political party in Ireland has espoused this as yet. The latest opinion polls suggest that 86 per cent of people in Ireland are happy with EU membership,” he said.