Irish Government caught napping as Spain secure a veto over Gibraltar in Draft Brexit Guidelines – Tóibín

Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín has castigated the Government for failing to secure a veto over the future relationship between the South of Ireland and the North of Ireland post Brexit. According to An Teachta Tóibín, the draft EU Brexit Guidelines specifically state “after the United Kingdom leaves the Union, no agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom may apply to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom”.

The Meath West TD said:

“Spain has ensured its role in determining the future of Gibraltar by gaining assurance that whatever is agreed in the future must be acceptable to Spain. The Irish Government on the other hand have secured no such cast iron say over the future of the north of Ireland.

“There is so much at stake here, the future of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. Potentially a million Irish citizens and therefore EU Citizens will be stranded outside the EU and the developing all Ireland economy will be set back 30 years leading to job losses and business closures.

“Not only has the Irish Government accepted a shockingly weak and passive influence over our future, we have missed out on the precedent that the Spanish Government has manged to carve out for itself. The Guidelines state that negotiations will only aim not to have a hard border on the island of Ireland and an Irish veto over the agreement is glaringly absent.

“This is a major mistake by our Government and it needs to change before this draft becomes the official negotiation process.”