An influential committee of Lords is calling for special consideration of UK-Irish relations after Brexit.

The House of Lords’ EU Select Committee said Brexit will require a new bilateral UK- Ireland trade agreement. Peers on the committee want “all parties” in the upcoming Brexit negotiations to give "official recognition to the special, unique nature of UK-Irish relations.”

The Committee, which is the largest body in the UK government with a focus on the EU, is investigating the possible outcomes of Brexit in a number of reports and making recommendations to the government. Six reports will be released over the course of this week.

The government has set itself the target of March 2017 for triggering Article 50, which will begin the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.  However, senior Conservatives who will take a lead on the process have come under fire over their repeated failures to elucidate on what Brexit will mean for different groups within the UK.

There have been indications that Prime Minister Theresa May is prioritising immigration restrictions in her vision for Brexit, which would suggest Britain is heading for a ‘hard Brexit’ which will probably preclude Britain's continued access to the single market. Ahead of the reports’ publication, Lords Committee chair Baron Tim Boswell said the public currently has “A confused picture” of Brexit and its implications.

In their first report, published on Monday, the Lords said, “Any negative impact of Brexit on the UK economy is likely to be replicated, or even magnified, for the Irish economy.”

Looking at the implications for Ireland’s agri-food sector, which employs almost one Irish worker in ten, Lords showed that the UK is the main destination for Irish agri-food exports, with more  than  40%  of  exports going to the  UK  market,  compared  with  31%  to  the  rest  of  the  EU  
and 28% to third countries.

Giving evidence to the Committee, Bryan Barry, Acting General Secretary of the Irish Farmers’  Association, highlighted agriculture sectors which are even more reliant on the UK market; 50% of beef exports, 60% of cheese and 90% of mushroom exports from Ireland go to the UK. Barry said Irish farming would be the “most exposed” industry in the country if trade with Britain is interrupted by the Brexit process.

Witnesses to the Lords Committee’s evidence gathering sessions said that any direct shocks hitting the Irish farm industry would cause further problems within the rural economy and ancillary industries, and that agricultural tariffs could be expected to reach 60-70% if the UK is forced to revert to trading with EU partners on World Trade Organisation terms post-Brexit.

Further evidence revealed that the mushroom sector, which is heavily reliant on trade with the UK, had been all but “wiped out” by the nose-dive in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote was returned in June this year. According to some reports, ten percent of Irish mushroom farmers have gone out of business since the vote was passed, based on the impacts of sterling’s fall on their already tight margins.

In the UK, farm unions have sought assurance from the government that their interests won’t be sacrificed in trade deals struck with partners in the global south after Brexit. They worry that about the impacts deals with major livestock producing South American countries or New Zealand would have on the domestic livestock sector. Irish witnesses also warned that these deals could “decimate” Ireland’s farm sector.

The Lords want the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic to remain open, with free right of travel for UK and Irish citizens and a customs trade arrangement between the two countries if the UK leaves the customs union. They said the UK and Ireland should be allowed to make special arrangements as soon as possible, and that any economic fallout or tensions resulting from Brexit could even affect peace in Northern Ireland.

Committee chair Tim Boswell commented, "Both the UK and Irish governments desperately want to avoid a return to hard borders. But the Republic of Ireland will remain in the EU, and any agreement to allow an open border to remain will have to be agreed by all the other EU member states. That's not a given."

He said an agreement must recognise “The unique nature of UK-Irish relations, of Northern Ireland, and of North-South relations on the island of Ireland.