Irish Party Says Bilateral Talks With UK Could Have Averted Major Brexit Shocks

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th August, 2019) Dublin should have entered bilateral negotiations with the United Kingdom to resolve all acute issues just after the 2016 referendum and incorporate mutually acceptable agreements into a future withdrawal deal, but did not do that, thereby losing opportunity to cushion all sides from economic shocks and tensions around the Irish border, Ireland's right-wing National Party leader Justin Barrett told Sputnik.

According to Barrett, Dublin could have started negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the United Kingdom as soon as the results of the Brexit referendum became known.

"And all those issues, Northern Ireland, the backstop, hard border, soft border ... all of those issues and so forth should all have been ironed out between the British and Irish governments on a bi-lateral basis. And then the Irish government, as a member of the European Union, should have gone to Brussels and said that agreement should have been incorporated into any withdrawal agreement," Barrett said.

He, however, expressed belief that "it's too late now."

Further dwelling on the Irish border issue, which became a core matter that prejudged the repeated defeats suffered by the withdrawal deal in the UK parliament, Barrett also commented on the Irish republican Sinn Fein party's push for a border poll on Irish reunification.

Last week, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald stated that it was "unthinkable" that the United Kingdom could drop out of the bloc without a poll on Irish reunification, claiming that a hard Brexit represented a "dramatic" change of circumstances on the island of Ireland that warranted further consultation.

According to Barrett, a border poll would polarize people "immediately."

"If they [Sinn Fein] were to win it they would win it by a very narrow majority, and if the unity of the island of Ireland were created on a narrow majority in the six counties you're guaranteed a violent backlash," he argued.

The politician warned that it would "collapse the peace process, return us to the worst days of violence, polarised communities and create an artificial jurisdictional community." The region, meanwhile, needs a "unity of broad consent," including within the Unionist community, "not simply the consent of a majority in the six counties."

"So it's a tinder box they [Sinn Fein] are playing with and it's very dangerous. There needs to be much greater outreach to the Unionist community. Unity by simply majoritarianism will not work. Unity by broad consent is the only thing that will work," Barrett added.

As UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson demonstrates determination to bring the country out of the bloc without a deal, concerns are mounting that it could send a ripple effect across the bloc. On Wednesday, the Irish minister of state at the Department of Finance, Michael D'Arcy, told Reuters that a chaotic Brexit would have a potentially "huge" impact on the Irish economy. He also noted that financial aid from the European Union might be necessary to shield EU nations from potential ramifications.