Ireland told to turn fire on Brussels to change rules that will create HARD BORDER
DUBLIN should stop demanding further clarification from the United Kingdom to resolve the Brexit deadlock on the Irish border and tell Brussels to change its laws, former Northern Irish First Minister Lord Trimble said.
Lord Trimble suggested Ireland could help resolve the Brexit talks deadlock on the Irish border by demanding the EU change its laws on border security.
He said: "The people Ireland should be really discussing the issue with is the European Union because we don’t want to have any installations on the border but European Union law will require them on the Irish side.
"What they should be doing is go to Brussels and say ‘we want you to change the law to relieve us of the obligation to put infrastructure on the Irish side of the border."
The Northern Irish politician rebuked attempts from Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney to suggest the UK continue to abide by EU regulation – mainly in connection to the single market and customs union – to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
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Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Today, he continued: "Mr Coveney will need to go back and rethink what he’s saying. He is going to find himself in the unusual position of being in a Government that is going to put installations on in order to comply with EU law.
"We are going to leave the European Union and one of the reasons for leaving it is to have our own say on what the regulatory framework for British industry is to be.
"He is saying we should continue to be bound in all circumstances by EU regulatory framework. What would then be the point of leaving? We are leaving in order to be free to set our own standards."
Mr Coveney accused the British Government of demanding a "leap in the dark" from Ireland and trust them to find an alternative to installing border security infrastructure between the two Irish nations.
He said: "What the British Government has been asking of the Irish Government is 'just trust us. We'll solve these issues with a broad, bold trade agreement.
"We can't be asked here to leap into the dark by opening up phase two discussions."
In November, Brexit Secretary David Davis said that there are "expensive but not impossible" ways to maintain a "relatively invisible border" between the two nations.
He said: "If the Government achieves its primary policy of having a tariff-free, barrier-free free trade agreement, then a customs agreement following on from that will be a very light-touch customs agreement - in which case it would be relatively straightforward to maintain a relatively invisible border.
"If that is not the case, I suspect the alternatives would be expensive but not impossible."
