Blanchardstown Library

It’s Friday evening, about tea time. Four middle aged men sit in a dimly lit corner of Flaherty’s Pub. The atmosphere becomes a little tense as our four friends begin to discuss the problems of the day. Sean and Padraig sit on one side of the table sipping their well-deserved post-work refreshments as they’ve done every Friday since as long as anyone can remember. Seamus, the relatively new arrival to the company sits opposite with Marek, from Krakow who has been living in Dublin for a few years now. The subject of the European Union comes up.

Given the increasing risk that the United Kingdom may leave the EU on 30 March this year without a deal (a “no-deal” scenario), the European Commission has today adopted a final set of contingency proposals in the area of the Erasmus+ programme, social security coordination and the EU budget.