Brexit will hit rural west hardest of all
Brexit has potential benefits in store for urban areas such as Galway city and Dublin, but will pose a significantly greater threat to more rural areas of County Galway, a City Council meeting was told this week.
In a presentation from the Director of NUI Galway’s Whitaker Institute, economic professor Alan Ahearne said while the UK was not Ireland’s biggest export market, it was its greatest import market with around 25% of all goods imports coming from the our nearest neighbours.
While the loss of access for UK companies to the EU market could mean a boost in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ireland, the benefits of this would not extend to the regions, he said.
The impact of Brexit, whether hard or soft, would be felt most acutely by the agri-food industry, where in the case of a no-deal Brexit, WTO tariffs would cripple Irish beef exports in particular, where a 40% tariff would apply.
This was likely to hit the West harder than the east, where dairy farming was more prevalent.
“Brexit will have different effects by region. Some regions depend a lot more on the agri-food sector,” said Prof Ahearne.
“Cities are far less exposed to Brexit than more regional areas. Beef producers come for the West, the Midlands and the Midwest.”
Any positive FDI effect was likely to benefit urban areas where existing FDI is concentrated, he explained.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.