Opposition leaders to be briefed on Brexit strategy

Opposition leaders are to be briefed on Thursday about the Government’s strategy if the UK votes to leave the EU.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny told Labour leader Brendan Howlin in the Dáil that he had asked the secretary general of his department to arrange the briefing for party leaders or their designated spokespeople.

Mr Howlin had asked Mr Kenny what plans were being worked on and to guarantee that Opposition leaders “are fully briefed to ensure there is a clear strategy to be implemented immediately by this country should the UK vote to exit the EU”.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams had earlier asked if there was a plan B in the event of a vote to leave, to minimise disruption to the country.

Mr Adams said there were enough difficulties created for Ireland by partition and "we don't need a part of this island inside the EU and another part outside".

He called on the Taoiseach to support the “democratic imperative of a border poll to provide Irish citizens with the right to the vote for an end to partition and for an all-Ireland approach to the EU”.

Mr Kenny told Mr Adams that a number of Government Ministers will visit various locations in Northern Ireland in the run-up to the referendum on June 23rd.

Last week, Mr Adams had said that if the Taoiseach was campaigning against a Brexit in Britain he should also campaign in the North.

Belfast visit

Mr Kenny spoke at a conference in Belfast on Monday about the referendum.

The Taoiseach said that from the discussions with people in Belfast, “there’s evidence of very little activity from political parties on the ground in explaining to people what this referendum is about and the consequences for Northern Ireland”.

He welcomed Mr Adams’s support for the campaign to remain in the EU, because of the clear implications of a vote to leave for the economy.

“Nobody wants to see a return to a hard border,” Mr Kenny said.

However, he reiterated his warning that if the UK were to leave, “it would be very difficult to continue on as we were before.

“It would be difficult to envisage a situation where you didn’t have some controls or conditions applied.”

He said the Government was a co-guarantor with Britain of the Belfast Agreement and “we have a specific vested interest in Irish communities and the fact that there are 200,000 jobs in a €1.2 billion trade every week across the Irish Sea”.