Brexit focus needed '˜to protect thousands of jobs'

Representatives from Border Communities Against Brexit were speaking as they headed to Letterkenny yesterday for an All-Ireland conference focusing on Brexit and the implications for the North West and wider border Region.

The group will also travel to the Oireachtas on Thursday to give a presentation to the new Seanad Special Select Committee on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

Declan Fearon from the group said: “In four weeks time the Brexit talks between the UK and the EU will have started without the Irish Government clearly seeking a Special Status for the North to remain within the EU.

“BCAB will argue again and again for the need of a Special Status to be delivered in the negotiations.

“This status would allow goods and services created in the North to be traded as they are now, without affecting the constitutional position of the North.

“One hundred thousand people are employed in the North in the agri/agri-food sector, while another 263,000 jobs are supported by tourism across Ireland which sees the island of Ireland marked as a tourist destination.

“To protect thousands of jobs in Ireland, and to prevent a Hard Border everyone needs to begin the discussion now on what kind of a society we want to live in; Brexit negotiation’s between the UK government and the EU start in four weeks.”