A chara, – It is about time that the Government and the political parties in Ireland faced the reality regarding the Border in Ireland when the UK will no longer be in the EU. There will have to be some type of control at the Border.
The English people voted (and it was primarily the English) to leave the EU as they have a huge dislike of uncontrolled immigration to Britain. They are not going to accept that the Irish Border will be kept as it is at present so that someone could fly to Ireland, head north, cross the Border without any checks into the UK and then make their way freely to Britain.
As much as the Government might appeal to the UK government to do Ireland a favour and not reimpose controls and visa requirements at the Border, the priority for the British government will be to look after their own interests in Britain. Why should the UK vote to leave the EU but then keep a back door wide open that would allow uncontrolled immigration?
The Government should be honest with the Irish people and stop dreaming that the Border will be left unchanged. What the Government should be preparing for is the UK to leave the EU, followed shortly thereafter by Scotland becoming independent, and then the consequences for Ireland and Irish unity of these events.
Scotland becoming independent and Northern Ireland becoming fragile are realistic scenarios. Hoping that the UK will not tighten up its Irish Border is an unrealistic scenario. – Is mise,
SEANÁN Ó COISTÍN,
Luxembourg.
Sir, – Vernon Bogdanor writes that membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) requires accepting the free movement of people ("Why Brexit will be Margaret Thatcher's revenge", Opinion & Analysis, October 4th).
Liechtenstein, an EEA member since 1995, imposes strict quotas limiting the number of people who can work and live there. This quota system applies to nationals of all EU countries. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.
Sir, –The British Brexit secretary David Davis has said that “we will protect the rights of EU citizens here, so long as Britons in Europe are treated the same way”.
But what rights is he talking about?
Currently EU citizens residing in the UK do not need to become UK citizens, by virtue of EU rules. This will no longer apply upon Brexit. Will they or will they not be citizens of the UK by virtue of their EU citizenship? Or will they be guest workers or residents? The latter is implied by the implementation of immigration controls. This matters to the 350,000 Irish in the UK who are still Irish and EU citizens. – Yours, etc,
JOHN HYNES,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.