Budget 2017: ‘Border shopping drain not tackled’

A border trader has predicted three-hour queues of southern shoppers heading for Northern Ireland after a missed opportunity budget.

Dundalk is 23km from Newry in Co Down and could be hardest hit by Brexit and the plummeting value of sterling. The flow of shoppers north has increased since the Leave vote on June 23, as the value of the euro rises.

Paddy Malone, a chartered accountant in Dundalk in Co Louth, said traders had pressed in vain for regeneration measures and rate relief.