Taoiseach needs to lead in defending Ireland's national interest after Brexit vote, says Martin McGuinness

THE ISLAND OF IRELAND is facing the biggest constitutional crisis since partition as a result of the Brexit referendum, Sinn Féin deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness writes in Friday’s Irish Times.

There has to be a political and public “mature debate” about the implications of Brexit for Ireland, North and South, he said.

The Brexit result poses a threat to the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements between parties in the North and the Irish and British governments, Sinn Féin's chief negotiator insisted.

The current economic uncertainty is already damaging trade and investment and causing currency fluctuations which impact particularly on cross-Border business and exports, the Derry Assembly member said.

“But all of that will be dwarfed if we see the imposition of tariffs and the restriction of free movement of goods, services and people on the island of Ireland.

“An EU frontier, hard or soft, stretching from Dundalk to Derry is not in our national interest.”

The most senior Sinn Féin figure in the North lashed the Conservative Party leadership of David Cameron for causing Brexit in battle with the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage.

“The British Government recklessly caused this crisis for entirely self-serving reasons,” Martin McGuinness said. “It was a foolish attempt to placate UKIP racists and the loony-right within the Conservative Party.”

He said that, nevertheless, the majority vote in the North of Ireland – as in Scotland – must be respected.

“Remain must mean remain.”

Martin McGuinness said that the Tories at Westminster don’t care for the people or economy of Ireland and added that political leaders in Dublin must act to chart a way forward.

“The Taoiseach needs to lead in defending our national interest in the outworking of the Brexit vote. The clock is ticking.

“The economic impacts of the Brexit vote are being felt.”

The British have made clear they will trigger Brexit early in the New Year. This will be followed by at least two years of EU negotiations.

The deputy First Minister said that an immediate and first step should be for the Taoiseach to call together all interested parties and bodies to map out the options for the future.

“Our party will play a full role in working along with the Taoiseach to defend our national interests and the democratic vote in the North.

“I believe people here see their future as part of an outward-looking, positive and inclusive new Ireland in a changed EU. The agenda being pursued by the Tories is contrary to all of that and it is time we had a genuine, mature and rationale debate about the challenge of Brexit.”