A leading expert has warned a hard Brexit could cost Ireland more than €10million a day.
Economist Jim Power said the UK crashing out of the EU would bring cross-border trade to a standstill.
He told the Sunday Independent: “The point here is that between €9million and €10million goes over and back across the border every day.
“In the event of a hard Brexit, when they won’t have systems in place to deal with that, there are two possible conclusions.
“One is that they would ignore the fact there is a border – which would be totally against EU policy because you cannot have an unprotected EU border. The other possible outcome is the whole thing will come to a standstill.
“I think it will take weeks to iron out the issues.”
Meanwhile, just one in five people, believe the economy will improve over the next year, the latest Kantar/Sunday Independent opinion poll, out yesterday found.
Members of the public are also concerned about their personal finances.
Just 22% expect to be better off financially next year – this is down 13 points from last year.
The general mood among the public is also bleak, with nearly half believing the country is going in the wrong direction. It comes on foot of last week’s revelation Leo Varadkar has failed to win over public support for his latest stance on Brexit.
Just 43% are satisfied with the Taoiseach’s latest performance in relation to the increasingly tense discussions.
A total of 27% were not satisfied with Mr Varadkar’s recent performance, while 14% were “quite dissatisfied”.
A further 13% were “very dissatisfied”.
A total of 33% were “quite satisfied” and 10% were “very satisfied”.
