The North's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness says the current British government "doesn’t give a damn" about people in Northern Ireland.
He has hit out at the British referendum on EU membership, and plans to reduce the UK corporate tax rate. British Chancellor George Osborne has said he is planning to cut the tax to less than 15%.
The Northern Ireland Assembly has the power to set its own corporation tax rate - but there are fears any move by Westminster could take a competitive advantage away from Northern Ireland.
“Doesn’t that just go to show when you couple that with the decision in the first instance to hold the disastrous referendum...that this British government doesn’t give a tuppenny damn about people in the North of Ireland, no matter what section of the community they come from,” Mr McGuinness told the Pat Kenny Show here on Newstalk.
He also says a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and the North as a result of the Brexit referendum is “a probability” rather than a possibility.
“I certainly think it’s more a probability than a possibility...it’s very hard to see how a hard border can be avoided.”
"Out of Europe against our will"
“That would be disastrous for us on the island for a whole range of reasons – not least the whole psychology of what we’ve gone through over the course of the last 40 years and the success of the Good Friday Agreement – which I think is now undermined by the approach being adopted by the British government in terms of dragging us out of Europe against our will.”
He says any hard border would be “psychologically very damaging for politics, and of course not least for tourism.”
“You can now drive from the centre of Belfast... to the centre of Dublin in about an hour and a half without being stopped at a red light or checkpoint of any description.”
“To see a return of hard checkpoints along that border I think would be absolutely dismaying,” Mr McGuinness said.
It comes as the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) warned that any hard border on the island of Ireland could be damaging to both communities and trade.
Mr McGuinness also says he believes everyone was surprised by the referendum outcome.
“I think that many people in the DUP were as shocked in the outcome of the referendum vote as people like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.”
“My view is that the DUP were working on the basis that the remain side would win.”
On the issue of the North’s First Minister rejecting an all-Ireland forum to discuss the referendum result, Mr McGuinness said: “My view is that the establishment of such a form would be a good idea and do no injury whatsoever to anybody’s political allegiances. What we are dealing with is a very severe crisis.”
