The Bruges Group spearheaded the intellectual battle to win a vote to leave the European Union and, above all, against the emergence of a centralised EU state.
Why Brexit Should Be Accompanied by Irexit (Ireland exit)
Ireland’s political Establishment is only now realising that Brexit really does mean Brexit and that the case for an accompanying Irexit is overwhelming. Irish opinion is likely to move in this direction over the coming two years and UK policy-makers should encourage that.
Dr Anthony Coughlan
22nd February 2017
For forty years from 1973 the Republic was a major recipient of EU money through the Common Agricultural Policy. Since 2014 the Republic has become a net contributor to the EU Budget. In future money from Brussels will be Irish taxpayers’ money recycled. This removes the principal basis of Irish europhilia, official and unofficial.
If Dublin seeks to remain in the EU when the UK leaves it will have to pay more to the EU budget to help compensate for the loss of Britain’s net contribution. A bonus of leaving along with the UK on the other hand is that it would enable the Republic to get its sea-fisheries back - the value of annual fish-catches by foreign boats in Irish waters being a several-times multiple of whatever money Ireland got from the EU over the years.
As regards trade and investment, the Republic sends 61% by value of its goods exports and 66% of its services exports to countries that are outside the continental EU26, mostly English-speaking. The USA is the most important market for its foreign-owned firms and the UK for its indigenous ones. Economically and psychologically it is closer to Boston than Berlin and to Britain than Germany.
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CONTAGION is what the EU most fears about Brexit, we're told. Could the Irish Republic be next? Dublin, Stormont, and Westminster are equally desperate to keep an open border between the Republic and NI; as it more or less has been since Irish independence. The border negotiations are going to pose the question for the Irish about whether their long term interest is best served by staying in the EU or riding with the UK. (I seem to remember that the Irish are already under pressure from Brussels to raise the level of their Corporation Tax, which the Commission thinks is too low).
