Irish tourism faces hard Brexit border threat

The hospitality industry faces “nightmare” challenges if a hard Brexit brings about a restricted Irish border, the annual Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) conference has heard.

Former taoiseach John Bruton told delegates at Lyrath Estate in Kilkenny that Ireland could end up having a similar border to Turkey and Bulgaria, which would have a “tremendously negative” impact on trade and movement of people.

He said: “The hotel industry very much depends on freedom of movement. What we don’t want is to end up with 4km-long border queues like Turkey-Bulgaria. It would be a nightmare around Dundalk or Enniskillen or wherever and would do tremendous damage.”