Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If one is to maximise the concessions that one is trying to secure, one has got to make people believe that one is willing to drive over the cliff and not agree a deal and that one can live with that. The British Prime Minister has done quite a good job of persuading people that he is willing to do that if he is not happy with the deal as a way of trying to maximise pressure to get what he wants. One has to look at the practical consequences of a no-deal for Britain and for Ireland and the cost of that, which would, in my view, be significant. It is not only not getting a deal on trade in terms of the absence of tariffs and quota, but it also makes it much more difficult to get the sectoral arrangements in place on all these other areas that are hugely important for the British economy and for the EU-UK relationship in the future politically, from security to data, to access to aviation and haulage, to services in banking and financial services, energy, etc., that will fall into place if there is a trade deal or are likely to do so because the mood music will allow for that. If there is not a trade deal, it makes it much more fractious because we will essentially move into a political blame game very quickly in the absence of a deal which makes these sectoral arrangements around contingency planning in the absence of a deal for 1 January next much more difficult. For both sides, the absence of a deal has real consequences.

I would not be ruffled by not knowing what the British Government really wants. That is a fairly standard negotiating strategy. Actually, the EU is the opposite of that. Everybody knows what the EU wants because it is such a predictable animal. It works, as stated earlier, on the basis of precedent, law, treaties, directives and mandates that the negotiating team has been given. The two sides have approached this very differently but, hopefully, they will be able to find a way of getting a deal that everyone can live with.

I do not want to comment on the level of preparations in Dover. That is a matter for the British side. All I would say is that when the French tested the system of checking passports last week, the queue was 5 km long. This would suggest that there could be significant disruption here, at least, in the short term after 1 January. One cannot compare Dover with Dublin. Dublin is a busy port, but not in comparison with Dover.