Yahoo Finance Irish firms and politicians 'in despair' after Brexit amendment vote
Politicians and business leaders in Ireland have largely denounced the passing of an amendment by MPs that calls for the Northern Ireland backstop to be replaced by unspecified “alternative arrangements.”
CEO of Manufacturing Northern Ireland Stephen Kelly told BBC radio that the firms he represents are “partly in despair” and “really confused” about what’s going on.
Speaking on Irish radio, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney likened the UK government’s position to “saying you either give me what I want or I am jumping out the window.”
Kelly warned Theresa May that any agreement with the EU “will still require a backstop,” and said that 94% of the firms his organisation represents already supported the existing deal.
“So if the prime minister intends to travel to Europe to add to that backstop, then we may still have a deal, but a deal that doesn’t work for Northern Ireland isn’t a deal.”
Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar will tell Theresa May on Wednesday morning that the backstop, which aims to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland, is not up for renegotiation.
READ MORE: After Brexit amendment, Irish leader to tell May backstop cannot be changed
Meanwhile, the leader of Fianna Fáil, which props up Varadkar’s government in Irish parliament, said that the amendment was “very vague” and “unclear.”
“What are the alternatives to the backstop? We had the negotiations and there was no clear alternatives,” Micheál Martin said.
In addition to his comments on Wednesday, Coveney had already warned on Tuesday that the developments in Westminster “do nothing to change” the need for the backstop, which was agreed “as the insurance policy to avoid a hard border in all scenarios.”
“We hope it will never be used, or be replaced quickly by a future relationship agreement. But it is necessary,” he said.
The chair of the Brexit committee in Irish parliament, Senator Neale Richmond, also said that the withdrawal agreement and the backstop “cannot be reopened”.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose 10 MPs Theresa May relies on in the House of Commons, reacted swiftly to Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) comments that accused the Conservative Party of “ripping apart” the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
“This is serious because we are talking about a treaty which has delivered peace to the island of Ireland,” SNP leader Ian Blackford said.
In the 30 years prior to the signing of the agreement, clashes between loyalists and republicans — known simply as the Troubles — took the lives of more than 3,600 people.
Speaking in the House of Commons, DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said it was “utterly reckless to speak in those terms.”
“The fact of the matter is that nobody in Northern Ireland — no political party — is advocating any kind of hard border on the island of Ireland,” Dodds said.
Even though the majority of political parties and businesses in Northern Ireland support May’s original deal, the DUP has long been opposed to the backstop, fearing that its implementation could see Northern Ireland separated in some way from the rest of the UK.
