Political parties in Northern Ireland – in particular the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – are being urged to look at the tabled Brexit withdrawal document from an economic viewpoint by Ian Marshall.
The independent senator in the Seanad and former president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) explained why the deal makes sense economically for Northern Irish farmers and businesses to presenter Claire Mc Cormack on tonight’s episode of FarmLand.
“This is the first document that we have,” the Armagh farmer highlighted.
“So the Brexit withdrawal document that we have – the 585 page document – for all intents and purposes is a legal document for Northern Ireland; but I’d always stress the fact that our preference or my personal preference would be that we didn’t Brexit.”
Marshall stressed that the notion of the UK crashing out of Europe is a horrendous situation for everyone involved in agriculture and the agri-food industry.
“We have a document that addresses some of the concerns about a seamless trading border between Northern Ireland and southern Ireland; we have access to the UK and GB market and we still have access to Europe.
So actually, for all intents and purposes, this document delivers for Northern Ireland.
“I do understand the concerns of some of the parties, the DUP in particular, and I do understand that they have concerns long-term, but I think we have to remember what the concerns are for business people.
“This is the economic concerns of a Brexit and a Brexit with a bad deal or no deal is horrendous for businesses.”
Regarding the DUP’s resistance to the tabled deal, Marshall said that he was not going to tell them what to do but urged them to look at it from an economic perspective.
“I’m certainly not going to advise the DUP or tell them what to do about their position but what I would urge the DUP is to look at this on economic terms, because we’ve had two years to have these discussions.
I fail to see an economic argument yet – a credible argument that has been made for Brexit. In fact, all of the academic assessments that I have seen of this Brexit conversation has indicated actually it wouldn’t be advantageous for the UK to leave.
The senator noted that, having said that, the DUP and others are perfectly entitled to their position. However, he stressed the importance of taking into account the economic consequences of this.
“I would ask them to reflect and possibly look at business, look at business concerns – and these are real concerns about jobs; about the economy; about businesses in Northern Ireland and access to other markets.
“So I would just urge everyone to take a long, hard look at this,” Marshall cautioned.