No easy answers on no deal Irish border impact, Irish govt says

There are no easy answers on how to avoid the need for physical infrastructure and related checks and controls on the island of Ireland if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, the Irish government said on Tuesday.

How to manage the land border between EU-member Ireland and British-run Northern Ireland - including an emergency "backstop" solution to prevent the return of extensive controls - remains the most contentious part of a divorce deal the contenders to become the next British prime minister want renegotiated.

In an update to its Brexit contingency plans published on Tuesday, Dublin said North-South trade could no longer be as frictionless as it is today in a no-deal Brexit. Any arrangement to minimise the negative consequences "will clearly be sub-optimal", it said.