Sinn Fein leaders continue to 'whip up people's fears' over return of hard border: DUP MLA

Sinn Fein leaders are continuing to “whip up people’s fears” over the prospect of border infrastructure being placed between Northern Ireland and the Republic, according to the DUP’s Deborah Erskine.

The Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA was commenting after Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald told the Irish parliament that “British military installations, built and reinforced from the 1970s onwards, were symbols of division and conflict,” while the invisible border “become the greatest symbol of peace”.

Ms McDonald was one of a number of TDs who warmly welcomed European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to the Oireachtas yesterday.

Ms McDonald said: “There can never be any return to the hard border in Ireland and I welcome your forceful assertion of that reality here today, President."

However, Ms Armstrong took issue with the Sinn Fein leader’s “hard border” reference.

“Sinn Fein should stop whipping up peoples fears. No one is talking about a hard border returning,” she said.

"The military checkpoints on the Fermanagh border existed when both countries were in the European Union.

"The checkpoints were there to curb the smuggling of Semtex and guns by paramilitaries such as the IRA. The checkpoints were about Semtex rather than paperwork on powdered milk.”

Ms Erskine added: “Sinn Fein and the EU need to recognise that Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have a currency border, a taxation border, a schools border, a medical border and a broadband border.

"In Republic people pay for their schools, healthcare and rural dwellers have little to no broadband."

In her own address at the Oireachtas , Ms von der Leyen praised Ireland for going “above and beyond” in its support for Ukraine, and said that Ireland “knows what it means to struggle for the right to exist”.

She said: “Today, all other Europeans look up to Ireland because you show Europe’s best face, innovative and inclusive, loyal to your history and traditions, open to the future and the world.

“This is the country that you have built indeed in one century of independence and half-a-century of European membership. It is the country your ancestors fought for and dreamt of.”