Hard border ‘inevitable and harmful’

The return of a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland is “inevitable” and will disrupt trade and harm the economy, a leading economist has warned ahead of his lecture in Cork this week.

Philippe Legrain is the inaugural speaker at the first annual Longfield Lecture in Economics this Wednesday, hosted by the Department of Economics in UCC.

Mr Legrain, a senior research fellow at the London School of Economics, was formerly special adviser to the director-general of the World Trade Organisation and independent economic adviser to the President of the European Commission.