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Brexit has \u201craised tensions\u201d on the island of Ireland and \u201ccomplicated\u201d progress towards a lasting peace, Bertie Ahern has told British MPs.<\/p>\nBrexit has \u201craised tensions\u201d on the island of Ireland and \u201ccomplicated\u201d progress towards a lasting peace, Bertie Ahern has told British MPs.<\/p>\n
The former Taoiseach said people were worried that a no-deal UK withdrawal from the EU would be the start of a \u201cslippery slope\u201d to a hard border, with checkpoints and troops.<\/p>\n
He said the UK\u2019s 2016 vote to leave the EU was the reason why the Northern Irish institutions created by the Good Friday Agreement remain suspended after more than two years.<\/p>\n
He told a House of Commons committee the Irish Government would not give up on the controversial backstop arrangements in Theresa May\u2019s Withdrawal Agreement, as they were viewed as \u201cthe only way of ensuring with certainty that we have a soft border\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Ahern, who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, poured cold water on any suggestion that Dublin would accept Mrs May\u2019s proposals for the backstop to be time-limited or replaced with technological solutions.<\/p>\n
While the technology to avoid border checkpoints may be developed \u201cin the dim and distant future\u201d, it is not currently available, he said, and checks at a distance from the border would not be seen by Ireland as compliant with the GFA.<\/p>\n
He told the Commons Leaving the EU Committee: \u201cThere is no possibility of the Irish Government or the Irish people saying the backstop could be time-limited. There is no hope of that, I\u2019m afraid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see the EU changing on the Withdrawal Agreement, I don\u2019t see them changing on the backstop, I don\u2019t think the Irish Government are going to change on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ahern said continued membership of the EU for both Britain and Ireland was \u201ctaken as an absolute given\u201d when he was negotiating the Good Friday Agreement with Tony Blair and was a \u201ckey element\u201d on which the 1998 pact was built.<\/p>\n
He said he felt like Rip Van Winkle waking up after 20 years asleep when he heard opponents of the backstop argue that Northern Ireland must be treated the same as other parts of the UK, when the agreement made clear that both sides accepted the constitutional position was different.<\/p>\n
Mr Ahern said: \u201cMost people remember the border and remember sitting in long queues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey fear that any infrastructure at the border equals trouble, disagreement, Army, soldiers, police. Some of it might be exaggerated but there is that fear of the slippery slope. It is something that really worries people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brexit \u201chas raised tensions again, it has brought back a lot of the rhetoric of the past, it\u2019s brought back a lot of the issues of the past\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my view that if it wasn\u2019t for Brexit, the institutions in Northern Ireland would have been up and running a year ago. Brexit has stopped that. It wasn\u2019t the reason that brought them down but it is the reason they are not back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether it was helpful for current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to talk about sending troops to the border in the case of a no-deal Brexit, Mr Ahern replied: \u201cRhetoric from anybody at any time isn\u2019t helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
He denounced as \u201cirresponsible\u201d suggestions that Brexit should lead to an early poll on Irish reunification, saying this should wait until new arrangements have had time to bed in and the institutions are restored.<\/p>\n
There’s very few plus sides – I can’t think of any – in UK withdrawal from Europe<\/p>\n
He told MPs: \u201cThe open and invisible border we have today is an achievement of the (peace) process and of our shared membership of the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo-one wants to see a hardening of that border and anyone familiar with life in Northern Ireland and the border counties would see the prospect of any infrastructure checks or controls \u2026 with enormous concern, and in my view they would be right.\u201d<\/p>\n
While London, Dublin and Brussels had all voiced their determination not to erect physical infrastructure along the border in any circumstances, Mr Ahern said World Trade Organisation rules would force them to do so if the UK left without a deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish Government say they don\u2019t want it, the British Government say they don\u2019t want it, the EU say they don\u2019t want it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think most Irish people think, \u2018Well then, we will definitely have it\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to keep the relationship between Britain and Ireland in the same close and hugely positive place it has been over the last two decades. But just because we all want that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t need a plan to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ahern said a no-deal Brexit would be \u201cdevastating\u201d for Ireland, particularly for small businesses and farms, with surveys forecasting 40,000 job losses and a 4% cut in GDP.<\/p>\n
But he said the threat of a hard border would \u201ctake precedence\u201d over economic issues for a large majority of its people.<\/p>\n
He said there was \u201calmost total unanimity\u201d in the Republic behind Mr Varadkar\u2019s insistence on the backstop, which is designed to keep the border open by keeping the UK in the EU\u2019s customs union and Northern Ireland observing certain single market rules until a wider trade deal is agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrexit is disruptive, full stop,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever way you look at it \u2013 from the UK, from the Irish point of view, from the island of Ireland point of view, North and South \u2013 it badly affects us. There\u2019s very few plus sides \u2013 I can\u2019t think of any \u2013 in UK withdrawal from Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n