Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is concerned that the disruption being caused by Brexit in Britain will have an impact on Ireland.
Speaking on the last day of his visit to New York for United Nations meetings, Mr Martin said he believes “the fallout has yet to come in terms of Brexit”.
As The Irish Times reports, Britain has recently been hit by fuel shortages and difficulties filling supermarket shelves.
The Taoiseach was asked if he was concerned about the possibility of knock-on effects in Ireland. Mr Martin replied: “I am indeed.”
He said: “I’ve been concerned for a long time in relation to Brexit.
“I think Covid has masked a lot of the issues around Brexit.
“Now we’ve managed to weather some of the storm because of preparation, and we prepared well, and also because we’re opening up links to Europe”.
People affected by climate change-driven conflict depend on this Council for leadership.
Now is the time for the Council to act.#ClimateAndSecurity #IrelandUNSC pic.twitter.com/R1XVCDolUj— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) September 23, 2021
However, he said he has picked up from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland that they are finding the lead times for ordering goods and getting them into the country is “much longer” than it would have been before Brexit.
He said British SMEs are finding it difficult to access the European market.
Preparing for Brexit
“So I think the fallout has yet to come in terms of Brexit,” he said.
Mr Martin said that if the politics could be taken away from the issue “everybody, including the UK need to reflect on how it’s working”.
He said: “We owe it to those at the frontline of industry and business that systems run smoothly.”
The Taoiseach also suggested that there “hasn’t been the same level of preparation in the UK for Brexit and the results of that are showing in some aspects of British commerce and British business”.
Asked if the British should renegotiate, he said: “That’s not going to happen.
“But what can happen is common sense and pragmatism.”
Mr Martin also said that the issues that have arisen have “been compounded also – we must be fair – by supply chain issues around Covid globally”.
