EU Commissioner Phil Hogan said that Ireland must prepare for a scenario where the UK leaves the EU without agreement next March, meaning a hard Brexit.

Avril Doyle, former MEP, EU Commissioner Phil Hogan and Verona Murphy, President of the Irish Road Haulage Association

Speaking at a special conference on Brexit organised by the Irish Road Haulage Association and Rosslare Europort, entitled “Keeping Trade Flowing” the EU Commissioner said that in preparing for a hard Brexit, the Irish Government needs to consider the sea port capacity to ship freight directly to France.

He said that Ireland cannot worry about what preparations are in place in UK ports. He said: “The latest episodes of the Brexit reality show have shown Prime Minister May battling with the mutineers, and the mutineers battling with each other. This means that, less than two weeks out from a key meeting of EU leaders which is supposed to settle this very question, we are no closer to the UK converging around a real, workable solution.”

Verona Murphy, President of the Irish Road Haulage Association speaking at the event said: “Brexit is often talked about in terms of an event that will happen in 2019 but won’t really have any impact until 2021 or later. For the licensed Road Haulage Sector in Ireland Brexit is already biting and the impact is absolutely frightening. We need to be Brexit ready now and the Irish Government and State Agencies need to plan for a hard Brexit given the political uncertainties in Westminster.”

“As a potential disruptor to mercantile trade, Brexit has the capacity to seriously damage our national economy and our international trading relationships. The effects are already plain to predict – major delays at our Ports as Customs, the Department of Agriculture and the HSE all carry out inspection checks which have not applied on trade across the EU to date. The implications of these checks and the delays that they will create for the transit of goods to and from Ireland will seriously threaten our economic competitiveness. We would see ferries being delayed, kilometres of queues in Ports, shortages in goods and increases in the price of consumer goods as restrictions kick in. There will also be increases in the cost of transport of goods as trips become longer, less efficient and delayed.”

Irish Road Haulage Association

About the Author: John Loughran