FEARS over the looming Brexit are being overblown and the Irish equine trade will continue to flourish uninterrupted.

That was the view of Harold Lusk of the Equine Council of Northern Ireland who attended Tuesday’s Brexit forum at the RDS, expressing polar views from the assembled panel.

Harold Lusk said: “I hear doom and gloom. People from the north will still come and still go to Dublin and Coilog and racing in the north will go on. The biggest export market will continue to be the UK.

“The UK will still be the big customers. I export all over Europe and Switzerland and it is outside the EU. It is not a big job. You are cleared in 15 minutes at the Swiss border. I don’t think this will change at all. It is the UK that has some of the most strict rules to get around. Business will go on. The picture is not as bleak as we have heard.”

NOT COMPARABLE

However, consultant Lucinda Creighton replied: “The stated position of the UK is to leave the EU. It is not comparable with Switzerland as there are agreements in place there. We are not making this up.

“I study this on a daily basis. If you are talking with trading with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, the margins for producers will be much less, with tariffs, it will not make sense for people to trade. Smaller operators will be wiped out, many of them.”

Richard Kennedy of the IFA said a delegation had visited Sweden and Norway and found there could be delays of up to 12 hours at different times. “To me from what I saw, there will be issues,” he said.

Cavan veterinary surgeon Dermot Forde warned that equines would not face the same easy movement as currently in place in the face of a tough or no deal Brexit. Forde also pointed out that some of the multiple passport-issuing authorities in the UK have “abysmal’’ standards with “deficient’’ documentation.