Brexit and public services in Northern Ireland

In voting to leave the EU, British electors delivered a considerable political shock on 23 June 2016. Both those choosing to leave and those wishing to remain agree that existing constitutional principles, institutional structures and international relationships have been destabilised. It is also apparent that leaving the free trade area and customs union provided by EU membership will create significant challenges for UK manufacturers and service providers. Brexit’s economic challenges will occur at a time when UK public finances are still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis. Health and social care services, policing and local government services are not areas of EU competence, and might therefore have been expected to experience only lesser ripple effects from the major constitutional and trade shockwaves that Brexit will create. This is increasingly looking to be a rather optimistic supposition for the UK as a whole, and Northern Ireland in particular.