Reuters carried a report last week about the impact of Brexit on Ireland (HERE) as seen by the IMF. The consequences for the Irish economy are expected to be "significantly negative". The Irish government has just released a position paper (HERE) setting out the context and the guidelines it plans to use in the forthcoming negotiations.
The UK is Ireland's biggest trading partner and the only EU nation sharing a land border with us so it isn't surprising Brexit is expected to cause a significant shock. Having said that the Irish position paper shows a lot of planning has already been done (see pages 41-45 of the position paper) and a lot of initiatives are already in place or soon will be. Enterprise Ireland (EI) published an ‘Information Guide for Irish Exporters to the UK’ as early as July 2016 and most recently published its international events programme for 2017 to support Irish exporters listing 145 events scheduled in Ireland and overseas to include 46 international trade visits covering sector specific markets in the US, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Spain, China, Australia, France, Germany, and the Nordic countries.
They also have a strategy called IFS2020 intended to make sure Ireland's International Financial Services sector benefits from London's loss of access to the single market.
I posted this to show that by comparison with Dublin we have barely got our boots on while they are half way round the world. A nation that we had such a troubled relationship with for so many years became a friend and partner - and is now a competitor.
