Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Commission has said publicly, and this has been reiterated by the President of the Commission, President Juncker, that it does not want to see the development of a hard border on the island of Ireland. As the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and I have said, were a disorderly event to take place, we would then have to engage in a period of negotiation and engagement with the Commission and the UK regarding how that would be delivered. As I make this statement to the committee, I wish to put it in a logical context. This is the very reason we negotiated for a backstop and a withdrawal treaty in the first place.

Our objective remains unchanged so it is only logical that if, for reasons beyond our control, the backstop was no longer to be operable, we would have to engage in a lot of work with the Commission and the UK regarding how that would be delivered.