Ray Bassett argues Ireland cannot rely on federalists within Europe to advocate its case, and must campaign for soft Brexit

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Ireland should not rule out leaving the European Union if Theresa May cannot secure a soft Brexit deal, a former Irish diplomat has said.

Ray Bassett, the former ambassador to Canada, called on Ireland to toughen up its position, arguing the government needed to stop being so loyal to Brussels and vocalise the potential destruction Brexit posed.

Bassett, the first Irish diplomat to call for a breaking of ranks, said: “Nothing will be served by not confronting forcefully, the ‘punish the Brits’ elements in Brussels.

“Having been involved in many negotiations, I can say confidently that the difficult party usually gets accommodated.”

He said Ireland could not rely on federalists within Europe to advocate its case, and with no allies outside Britain, it needed to launch its own campaign for a soft Brexit with access to the single market and immigration controls.

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Bassett, who was previously involved in Northern Ireland peace talks and served as joint secretary of the British-Irish secretariat in Belfast, is the first former diplomat to call for a shift in negotiation position.

Writing in the Sunday Business Post, he said the Irish government’s determination to remain as close as possible to the line being taken by the 26 other member states was “at odds” with the national interest.

Earlier this year, Irish business leaders and former politicians including the former taoiseach John Bruton warned of the economic “disaster” Brexit could cause given that the UK is the country’s single biggest export market.

The former ambassador says the country will find itself alone without any natural allies when Britain leaves the EU, and Brussels has shown “in the infamous bailout and other matters” that “Ireland’s national interest does not carry much weight nowadays”. This was a reference to threats made by the European Central Bank to stop cash flow to the country unless it bailed out private bondholders during the 2010 crash.

“We simply cannot leave out interest in the hands of people like former EU commissioner Michel Barnier, a noted federalist,” said Bassett, in reference to the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.

“Instead of bleating about a common EU position, we should be convening meetings in Dublin at heads of government level with like-minded countries such as the Nordics, Netherlands etc that have a powerful self-interest in Britain getting as good a deal as possible,” he said.

Publicly, Ireland is remaining loyal to the other 26 member states.

In December the taoiseach, Enda Kenny, rejected a call from the House of Lords for the EU to allow a bilateral deal between Dublin and Brussels because of the unique dangers.

“A bilateral deal is not being examined,” he said. Days earlier, the government’s European affairs minister, Dara Murphy, called the House of Lords plan “nonsensical”.

Bassett called on the Irish government to break ranks with its EU partners. “Ireland needs to position itself as the leader of the countries wanting as soft a Brexit as possible,” he said, adding that the taoiseach should also support Britain’s position on controls on immigration, something Europe has already said is non-negotiable.

A spokesperson for the Irish embassy in London said: “Ray Bassett recently retired after a long and distinguished career in DFAT [the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]. He never worked at a senior level on EU issues, but any contribution to the Brexit debate is of course welcome.

“The government has been consistently clear that it wants to maintain the very strong links between Ireland and Britain in the context of the closest possible EU-UK relationship. Supporting the integrity, unity and effectiveness of the EU itself is also a key national priority for us as one of 27 remaining member states.

“Of course, at this stage we are all waiting for the British government to set out its vision of the future relationship.”