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.