Punishing the Republic of Ireland

Few, if any, commentators have remarked that with a so-called hard border, the main victims will be inside the Republic, since the EU’s rules will restrict the flow of goods INTO the Republic. If they have to come from Continental Europe, either they have to be driven across the congested roads of the Midlands and North Wales, or they will have to be shipped direct. The latter is going to be much more expensive than getting the goods from the UK.

Compare the distances.

Dublin to Rotterdam is 667 NM, sailing time 2 days, 3 hours
Dublin to Liverpool is 126 NM, sailing time 10 hours
Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead is 61 NM, sailing time 3 hours.

The differences will add very substantially to transport costs, which will add to the price of goods in the Republic. To make matters worse for those in the Republic – it has no large container port comparable to Southampton or Felixtowe. There is not the traffic to support one, so the economies of very large container vessels will not be achieved. One would have thought that Vradakar would have had his eye on the ball and was concerned about this. Seemingly not.