Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Regrettably, the British Prime Minister has decided to play a sort of brinksmanship game. We read this morning that troops have been mobilised to prepare for a hard Brexit. Earlier this week, Brigadier General Ger Aherne retired and he gave a detailed interview to Seán O'Rourke on Radio One, with respect to the lack of preparedness in Ireland regarding to the management of a border. He referred in particular to the failures of the White Paper, insofar as it has redistributed the majority of troops in a line south of Dublin and Galway, with two battalions left north of that. Ireland is not ready to man a border and the Defence Forces have now identified a further 100 crossings along the Border.

The time has come for us to show our hand. The risk of a border is something nobody on this island wants, and we are constantly told by the British Government that it does not want a border. We are also told that the people in the North of Ireland do not want a border. However, I read this morning that one of the peers from the North of Ireland, Lord Kilclooney, says this is going to be bonanza time for the UK – the pound is going to fall, exports will rise and everything will be hunky-dory. It is time for truth on Brexit. I believe that while we are putting contingency plans in place for customs officials, we have failed to examine, at least in the open, how we are going to manage a border. There is no way that we can have an open border in a hard Brexit situation. It is going to be extremely difficult to have an open border in a soft Brexit. We must address that issue as a matter of urgency. I would like to hear some utterances from the Government with respect to whether it has war gamed the management of troops being moved to a Border area.

We are about to enter what we might call the winter of discontent from the public service. Nurses have voted for strike action and two of the teachers' unions are totally opposed to the current pay conditions. There are so many demands on the public purse, between health and education and all of the other services that are given by the State, and I do not know how they are going to be met.