Ireland announces contingency plans following Brexit vote

Ireland on Friday announced contingency plans following the Brexit vote.

In a Contingency Framework adopted by the Irish government, Ireland identified key policy issues to be addressed in any exit negotiations, with a view to minimizing potential operational risks likely to arise.

Priority issues identified include: British-EU negotiations, British-Irish relations, Northern Ireland, trade, investment, North-South border impacts, competitiveness and macro-economic issues, research/innovation funding and energy.

"Today's result marks the beginning of a new phase of negotiated withdrawal -- one that is expected to take place over at least two years and possibly longer," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said, when announcing the Contingency Framework.

"Businesses can continue to trade as normal and people can continue to travel as normal between Ireland and the UK, including Northern Ireland," he said.

"In the meantime, the government has adopted an initial Contingency Framework to map out the key issues that will be most important to Ireland in the coming weeks and months. This will be an iterative process as issues emerge and recede in the course of negotiations," he added.

According to final results released by the British authorities, around 17.4 million people voted for Brexit while 16.1 million others chose to to stay at the bloc. The turnout at the referendum was 72.2 percent.

But the process of leaving will not be immediately started and would take a long time, British media reported. The final results showed Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU, Wales and England in favor of leaving. Endit