Originally Posted by
Peter47
The UK & Ireland have a common travel area which was negotiated prior to the UK joining the EU and this includes the right to work in both countries. Presumably this won't change. However it MAY mean that UK pilots could only be based in Ireland. Or be based in DUB but spend many nights away at EU airports. Of course, if FR can sponsor pilots for Irish citizenship problem solved. How long must you be resident in NI to be eligible for Irish citizenship.
Irish citizenship requirements:
Who can become an Irish citizen?
It's a shame I don't meet any as I'd have snapped one up by now.
I have heard very little about the CTA in this whole big mess of a referendum. It's been around for a long time and I am not sure why all the talk about borders in NI are so loud. Seems like the DUP have just been waiting to build a wall of their own for ages and an excuse has finally come up.
The CTA could easily remain and GB/IE just continue as they do now, it makes no odds that one is in the EU or not, neither are in schengen and they could just introduce a shared visa system and shared monitoring of who comes in and when/where. Being islands there is only one of 2 countries someone is going to be able to move around before having to show a passport to get out of one of them. I don't see why there would be any need to end this agreement, just a slight enhancement on the external borders, based purely on convenience of the sheer numbers of people who cross between GB/IE every day, by land, sea and air it'd be pretty retrograde to impose major checks.
The current cross border set up of random checks on vehicles by land and sea and checking ID on flights should suffice. There would be barely any illegals coming in via Ireland anyway as they aren't in Schengen so anyone heading there needs a passport or visa anyway. The fact you can only get in by ship or plane from mainland Europe limits the numbers somewhat. In all probability the UK is, much to the annoyance of many a brexiteer, highly unlikely to impose anything other than slightly watered down free movement of people, again, purely for practical reasons. If the UK or EU wants to change that then both set to lose out, so it'd be pointless. The UK needs it's citizens to easily get access to Europe and in order to get that then we will have to accept the opposite.
Yes, there may be the odd work or residence permit to obtain for people working or settling after we actually leave, but that will probably just be there to know who came after the brexit date and therefore won't get access to free NHS or Benefits, for however long, for example. The talk of "controlling our borders" has many connotations and actually lowering the numbers physically coming may not be one of them as even the brexiteers know that'd be pretty self defeatist in a continent as closely linked as Europe. Restricting people once they are here is a different matter as by doing that they can indirectly lower the numbers by making it less attractive to come here. I hardly think we will become something like Belarus.
UK customs procedures will not likely change from what they are now, so there is no issue there as currently IE is the same as us anyway. Most countries, EU or not, follow pretty much the same customs rules anyway.
So basically all this vote may end up actually doing is taking the UK and Europe through years of market uncertainty and expensive, strung out ,late night talks in board rooms in Brussels all for nearly nothing. In the end we will more than likely end up in a situation not that different to what we have now, only millions of tiny trade deal details and other Pan European legislation will have been torn to shreds and then pretty much stuck back together again to refer to the UK as an external market. Benefits like EU roaming capping, various workers rights, the ability to truly freely work and live abroad, the safety of being able to use any EU embassy in the event of an emergency abroad or the ruling about not being able to charge men more than women on car insurance will vanish to our detriment. Doesn't make sense to me, but that's the way it's gone!
Oh, and Scotland might walk away from it all too!
