Ireland’s Close Ties With UK Likely to Make Dublin Leave EU - UKIP Member

Ireland is likely to follow the United Kingdom out of the European Union, as maintaining ties with London is more important to Dublin than remaining an EU member state, member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Richard Wood told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the United Kingdom officially triggered article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, thus starting the Brexit process. The island nation is Ireland's largest trade partner in the European Union in terms of exports, accounting for 36 percent of its trade with the bloc, according to Irish Central Statistics Office.

"Ireland will be the next country to leave. Ireland will leave at the drop of a hat because Ireland and Britain were always together. We are too close and our relations are more important for them than relations with the rest of the EU. They will not want to have a border," Wood said.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the Irish government warned of the possible negative outcome of Brexit on the nation's economy and raised awareness of maintaining the Irish-UK border open as possible post-Brexit. According to Irish government statistics, more than 10,000 people live on one side of the frontier and work on the other, with 1.8 million cars crossing the border every month.