Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said “wishes to God” that British politicians would “look at their own laws” in relation to the Common Travel Area.
The ex-taoiseach’s comments come amid a row between Ireland and the UK over sending arrivals back to Britain, amid a reported increase in the number of asylum seekers crossing the Northern Ireland border.
The former leader, who played a key role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement and who was vocal on Anglo-Irish relations during Brexit negotiations, said Irish ministers should not “play into their game” ahead of local elections in England and Wales on Thursday.
Mr Ahern said that if the British government had cancelled a meeting with him last-minute, “I would tell them the next meeting is in Kerry”.
UK home secretary James Cleverly and Justice Minister Helen McEntee were due to meet in London on Monday to discuss how to protect the Common Travel Area.
But the meeting was cancelled late on Sunday night; Ms McEntee then did not attend the British-Irish conference in London.
Asked about the last-minute cancellation, Mr Ahern said: “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I can never remember, actually, British officials doing that on me. But, anyway, I would have told them the next meeting would be in Kerry.”
Asked whether Ms McEntee was right not to attend the conference in response, Mr Ahern said: “I think it was the right call. If you went over for a meeting and they cancelled at short notice, you know, she has enough to be doing.
“She’s doing a good job, in my view, trying to deal with all of this stuff rather than playing into their game.”
He said that “No 10 spin doctors were doing a good job trying to make this all about Rwanda”, when he said the issue was about the Common Travel Area.
“I’m sure it’ll make an enormous difference to their local election results,” he told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne programme.
Asked about Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg’s comments where he suggested the row offered a “golden opportunity” to place “illegal migrants in the UK” in facilities near the Irish border, Mr Ahern urged British politicians to “look at their own laws”.
“I suppose we should say that we’re very proud in this country that we do care about people that are fleeing from terrible conflicts, and we do have a conscience in this country,” he said.
“Because our long history shows us that people who are being persecuted need to be protected.
“What we’re trying to deal with is people who shouldn’t be here and wouldn’t pass the rigours of an assessment.
“Rees-Mogg was saying last night that everybody that comes into Britain that shouldn’t be in Britain from France and comes in on the boats, ‘we’ll put them all on the Irish border’.
“Well, I wish to God British politicians would look at their own laws, and maybe I’ll send them a text today which I used to for years and tell him: ‘Read the Common Travel Area’ and read his own terrorism legislation, but anyway.”
He added: “I don’t think we’re going to start checking passports on the Irish border – that would be going against everything that we fought and won in the Brexit discussion – but I don’t think the UK are going to do that.
“I don’t think the UK have any interest, even though it’s their law, of checking people coming in through Belfast or Larne or anywhere else. So I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
