Irish leader rules out border between EU and island of Ireland

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar on Friday firmly quashed suggestions that the European Union could insist on a border on the island of Ireland to protect the single market in a no-deal Brexit scenario.

“We can’t allow a decision made in Britain to leave the European Union,” Varadkar said, “to undermine our membership of the single market and customs union.”

News agency Reuters on Thursday quoted an unnamed EU diplomat as saying that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, there would either have to be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland or a border between Ireland and the rest of the EU.

If a hard border in Northern Ireland is to be avoided, the idea that controls or checks could be placed between the island of Ireland and the rest of the EU has been floated to protect the integrity of the single market.

“I don’t see how [this] would avoid a hard border,” Varadkar said. “It would create a hard border between Ireland and the European Union and that’s not something we can accept.”

“Whatever happens, Ireland is going to stay in the heart of the European Union. It’s the common European home we helped to build, we’re founder members of the eurozone, founder members of the single market,” he said.

Ireland has continually said that it is making no preparations for physical infrastructure on its border with Northern Ireland, even in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Both the EU and Ireland routinely insist that the backstop in its agreement with prime minister Theresa May is the only way to avoid a post-Brexit hard border.

Varadkar was speaking ahead of an all-island Brexit dialogue event on Friday in Dublin Castle — the fifth such event to be held since the UK voted to leave the EU.