Lane: Regional Ireland must brace for Brexit

It is “crystal clear” that regional Ireland must brace itself for “permanent disruption” whatever the outcome of Brexit, the governor of the Central Bank has warned. Philip Lane said the days and weeks following a no-deal Brexit would see a lot of disruption, and the question is how long it would take to adapt to it. Smaller firms and the regions will be more adversely affected than multinationals, he told the Oireachtas finance committee.

“We have a large multinational sector here which essentially has a global market,” said Mr Lane. “Those firms would not be particularly exposed to Brexit risk. So many small firms’ only export market is the UK, and within agrifood and certain segments within that, the dominant export market is within the UK. There is no doubt these risks are quite concentrated, and given these industries are regionally concentrated, there will be very different effects across the country.”