Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The uncertainties associated with the forthcoming triggering of Article 50 by British Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the implications it will have for Border communities like my own in Cavan and Monaghan, have instilled an unsurprising sense of foreboding and fear among people North and South of the Border and very especially in those same, and in other, Border counties. The British Government has made it clear that it will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of March 2017 and begin the exit process, and it will also seek to leave the Single Market in what can only be called a hard Brexit. This situation is unprecedented, as no member state has left the European Union and the Single Market before now.

Sinn Féin has been continuously saying that a North of Ireland exit from the European Union would harden the divisions between North and South on this island, with the potential for the re-introduction of customs checkpoints, trading tariffs and adverse knock-on effects for all-island economic activity and co-operation. That would re-affirm and harden the Border and could be the most intense development on the Border landscape since partition and certainly since the demilitarisation of the Border since the Good Friday Agreement.

The Government has continuously assured us that it would do its utmost to avoid any return to a hard Border. However, it is frightening to learn that under Government plans to deal with Brexit, it has begun identifying location points for full customs checkpoints along the Border with the Six Counties. According to reports in the Irish Examiner, internal documents show that the Government is preparing for the return of a hard Border in the wake of Brexit, including the return of full red and green channel checkpoints. Cited in the same publication was a quote from a Minister, whomever that might be, who said "No one is aiming for a soft Brexit anymore, it is now about preparing for the worst". I presume that is not a quote from the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan.

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