Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's decision to have a public spat with the British government over Brexit may be understandable but it is not very wise.
His proposal that the future border between the European Union and the UK should not be on the island of Ireland but at ports and airports on either side of the Irish Sea is eminently sensible but unfortunately it has been a political non-runner from the start.
By promoting it publicly, Varadkar has provoked a hostile reaction from both the British government and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for no tangible political or diplomatic gain.
Of course, the frustration of the Taoiseach and his Ministers with the sheer stupidity of Brexit is understandable. Varadkar was right to emphasise that all of the problems associated with it are due solely to British decisions and not to anybody else.
By raising unrealistic expectations that a land Border can be avoided, Varadkar risks making the EU the bogeyman when that actually happens
However, finding the least worst option to the myriad of problems Brexit will inevitably generate for both parts of Ireland demands subtle negotiation and careful planning rather than megaphone diplomacy.
Varadkar and his Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney have clearly embarked on a much more aggressive strategy for dealing with the British than that pursued by their predecessors Enda Kenny and Charlie Flanagan.
The Taoiseach has already taken action to back his view that the Government should not help the British to devise a new system of customs and immigration controls on the land Border.
Technological solutions
Officials from Revenue and customs services had been investigating how technological solutions, such as electronic monitoring, could be employed to ensure an open Border when the UK leaves the EU, but a Government spokesman confirmed at the weekend that this work was being discontinued.
While there may well be some short-term political gain for the Government in taking an aggressive stance towards the British, the long-term consequences could be negative on a number of fronts.
If the UK leaves the EU single market and the customs union, as the hardline Tories desire, then there will have to be customs and immigration checks on the island of Ireland whether we like it or not.
The British might well say they don’t want any Border checks but the EU will insist on it because tariffs will inevitably be imposed on a range of goods if the UK leaves the customs union.
By raising unrealistic expectations that a land Border can be avoided, Varadkar risks making the EU the bogeyman when that actually happens. His pronouncement also makes it less likely that the parties in Northern Ireland will be able to devise a common strategy to deal with the consequences of Brexit.
Stopping work on practical means of developing electronic monitoring on the Border is also a mistake. In a best-case scenario it will never have to be used, but preparing for the worst is surely the right thing to do.
British cabinet shift
Curiously, the more aggressive Irish strategy has emerged at a time when the balance of forces in the British cabinet appear to have moved a little bit in the direction of ministers such as chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond who favour a softer Brexit.
It is strange that the Government has suddenly adopted a tougher approach to the British when there is a chance, however slim, that a hard Border may be avoided.
In the months after the Brexit decision, the Government pulled off a major diplomatic coup by getting all our EU partners and the European Commission to put Irish concerns about the future of the Border in the top three issues to be considered in the opening phase of negotiations.
The light will continue to dawn on the British that a soft Brexit is by far the best outcome for their country's long-term interest
The start of formal negotiations saw the British having to pull back from their silly pre-negotiation slogan that “no deal is better than a bad deal” as they were forced to accept the framework for the opening segment of the talks put forward by the EU.
EU chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier and his team have shown themselves to be far ahead of the British in their understanding of the complexities involved in the Brexit process. Hopefully, as the talks continue the light will continue to dawn on the British that a soft Brexit is by far the best outcome for their country’s long-term interest.
EU legal expert John Temple Lang, in a cogent paper published this week by the Institute for International and European Affairs in Dublin, argues that the only realistic alternative to EU membership that is satisfactory for the UK from an economic viewpoint is the European Economic Area. That penny might be dropping in London.
Part of the Government’s initial response to Brexit was an attempt to find some common ground with British to protect Irish interests. The lack of any strategy on the part of the British and the dominance of the hardliners in the Conservative government soon convinced the Irish side that our interests were best served by being very clear about our commitment to Team EU.
That strategy paid off and the EU has put Irish concerns centre stage in its talks with the British. For the moment, the negotiations are best left to them rather than making unrealistic demands that will inevitably be disappointed.