Government needs to repair relationship with the DUP – Tánaiste @simoncoveney tells #twip pic.twitter.com/KGnv3gxOqj
— The Week in Politics (@rtetwip) December 17, 2017
This comes after the Fianna Fail Leader, Michael Martin raised some concerns about the Irish governments strategy in an interview with JOE.ie;
The problem with, what Martin calls the government’s “megaphone diplomacy” and the “weakening of the back channels between the leaders of Ireland and the UK”, is that the government is playing well at home but there is a lack of recognition that a bad deal for Britain is a bad deal for Ireland and will be very damaging to the Irish economy.
“There are elements of the Irish audience that love having one over the British and English – from Houghton’s goal on, it’s natural, instinctive, it’s in our DNA,” says Martin. “Without a shadow of a doubt Brexit is the greatest challenge facing the North and South of Ireland…but it hasn’t yet come into Irish consciousness, just how bad it could be”.
“If we don’t replace the relationship we have now with UK with something similar, we are looking at thousands of jobs being lost, particularly in agriculture. Irish companies will lose market share in Britain if Britain has cheaper imports from other places in the world and if there is a tariff on Irish goods coming into the UK”.
David McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
