Charlie Flanagan warns about British EU exit uncertainty

Continuing uncertainty about Britain’s future in the EU could lead to severe adverse effects for Ireland north and south, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said yesterday.

Speaking at Queen’s University Belfast, Mr Flanagan said Ireland backed efforts by UK prime minister David Cameron to reform the EU and therefore help see off any threat of a British exit from the EU.

The speech marks an escalation in Ireland’s role to do it all it can to help influence the debate in the North and in Britain that reform of the EU is possible and that exiting the EU would create risks for the Irish economy.

Mr Flanagan said he saw “very little to be gained by sailing into such uncharted waters” for Ireland and Britain.

“Because, no matter what way you look at it, a ‘Brexit’ would be a leap into the unknown,” said Mr Flanagan.

“No matter how much planning and mitigating and negotiating we will of course do if the UK does leave the EU, we simply don’t yet know just how much it might mean for the border, for north-south co-operation and for the all-island economy.

“And that’s just uncertainty from a relatively narrow all-of-Ireland perspective.

"There is huge uncertainty too surrounding a whole host of other things, whether it’s the economic impact it will have on the entire EU, the strategic balance within the union, or on the EU’s engagement with the wider world.”

Earlier this month, the Economic and Social Research Institute warned that trade between Ireland and Britain could fall at least 20% if the UK left the EU.

The Institute of International and Economic Affairs said earlier this year that a British exit would cut the annual value of Irish exports by €6bn.