Good Friday Agreement diplomat praises Donegal TD’s stance on border

A former senior Irish diplomat has praised a Donegal TD’s stance on the post-Brexit border.

Ray Bassett was part of the negotiating team for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and has also served as an ambassador to Canada, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.

Writing in the Business Post, Bassett expressed agreement with Joe Mc Hugh’s belief that using technologies such as surveillance cameras to regulate the border “could not turn a border into something acceptable.”

He also praised Foreign Minister Simon Coveney’s belief that there should be no border; and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s insistence on the matter.

The movement of the border to the Irish Sea, which is what Minister Coveney is pushing for, would mean that customs checks would take place at airports and ports.

“All three senior government figures were on the same page, any border is anathema to the Irish Government,” said Bassett.

Similar sentiments are shared with Border Communities Against Brexit, who told Donegal Daily that “cameras on soft or hard borders will escalate into Troubles and will put the Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement at risk.”

The Border Communities Against Brexit spokesperson, JJ O’Hara,  also stated that any type of border would be detrimental to the peace process, and fears that “through time it will escalate to a hard border.”

Varadkar now must explain to the Bernier team why Ireland will not be cooperating with EU custom laws post-Brexit – something that concerns Brussels as for them, “there is no such thing as a frictionless external EU border.”

Bassett added that Varadkar’s disagreement with the DUP “will do him no harm at all on this side of the border.”

“A border would thoroughly destabilise this island and be economically ruinous to whole communities.”

“Upsetting London, the DUP and Brussels all at once in the national interest was not a bad beginning. It will be a test of their political mettle whether they have the confidence and strength to continue on the current line but as our new Gaeilgeoir Taoiseach might put it: “Tús maith, leath na hoibre”,” he concluded.