Then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson were key figures in the Brexit negotiations. Photograph: Noel Mullen AFP via Getty ImagesIt certainly beats the Y2K fiasco of 1999 which had a much shorter lead-in period and disappeared almost on the stroke of midnight when the technical Armageddon predicted in some quarters morphed into a manageable computer glitch.
In the end the whole affair, from Ireland’s perspective, didn’t exactly blow over but it was absorbed without the disruption and economic fallout that many had predicted. Of course, there are problems ahead for food exporters here. UK border controls on agricultural imports from the EU are due to be implemented at the end of the month and could prove a significant obstacle. According to the European Commission, the physical checks, health certificates and identification protocols on goods entering the UK, if fully enacted, will represent a 10 per cent tariff-equivalent increase for EU companies.
Two key flashpoints that could have caused major problems were avoided; one at the outset, the other by an unexpectedly consistent and unified EU position throughout the process.arrangement between the UK and Ireland that allows citizens move freely to live, work and study, was ruled out. The other big potential trap was the Border. Dublin has always suspected that London of being not fully cognisant or of not caring about Irish issues and Brexiteer guff about the high-tech, unseen borders seemed to underscore this.