'A recipe for chaos': UK Brexit plan provokes alarm along Irish border

The British government’s proposals for a soft border with the Republic of Ireland after Brexit were greeted with scepticism and anxiety on both sides of the border.

The president of the chamber of commerce in the Republic border town of Dundalk, Paddy Malone, said the proposal to exempt small business from a host of customs regulations was “a recipe for chaos”.

Malone, a tax accountant and a member of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael party, said the exemption proposal was not workable. “It will be a back door in and out of the EU and that cannot be allowed to exist,” he said.

He questioned who would regulate or police the proposed equivalence with EU food and health safety standards, which at the moment involves mandatory farm inspections and veterinary certifications. “The answer is that is the European court of justice. So congratulations, Britain, you are right back in the EU.”

He said the only solution was for Northern Ireland to stay in the customs union.

“Britain has not figured out how to square the circle, because the circle cannot be squared,” he said.

He also took issue with an interview the former Tory MP Edwina Currie did on Irish radio, Newstalk, on Wednesday morning in which she said a certain amount of smuggling would have to be tolerated.

He said exemptions for small businesses, which would include the majority of cross-border traders, would not just fuel smuggling, “it will destroy an awful lot of legitimate business in the area”.

“This attitude that a certain amount of lawlessness is OK is deplorable,” he said.

He also said hauliers of agricultural products in the border area faced huge risks to their business if there were border checks or random checks, particularly those using the UK as a “land bridge” to the continent, travelling to Holyhead and onward to Dover.

“I was speaking to one of the largest hauliers in the town and he said if his drivers were stopped for an hour or two and held on the side of the road, that would be counted as part of their driving time and they would have to take a break and could miss their ferry to Dover and with perishable goods that could also mean shelf life is compromised. It adds risk, higher insurance, higher business costs.”

Joe Daly, who runs his own decorative glass business on the Northern Ireland side of the border in the village of Jonesborough, said some people were already encouraging him to move his business to the other side of the border because his main clients are pubs and hotels in the Republic.

“That wouldn’t suit us at all,” he said. He remembers the customs checks on the border. “They were random checks, there would be queues, it was a mess. We would certainly be concerned if there was a return to that on a daily basis.”

Asked what he thought of the latest proposals he said: “We don’t know what to think. Does anybody actually know how this is going to work?”

He voted remain in the referendum and said the public should be allowed another vote on the final deal.

It is estimated that 30,000 people commute across the border in both directions for work.

One woman who works for Paddy Malone crosses the border four times a day. “She’s asked me would she get home to see her kids on time, would she get to work on time if there were checks. The answer is we don’t know,” he said.