Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Some time ago, Mrs May was at pains to announce on a number of occasions, as were many members of her Cabinet and many leading Brexiteers, that no deal is better than a bad deal. While the tone of her letter, which we discussed last week, is quite emollient, there is absolutely no sign from the British Government that the people who are pro-Brexit, who seem to be in the majority, have moved away from that position. In that context, it is very difficult to see at this point how the negotiations will be successfully concluded.

We now have a situation where Northern Ireland is not represented at all in the negotiations. It does not sound like it will become engaged any time soon as a result of the collapse of the power sharing institutions and with both parties seemingly determined to avoid, in practice, any recommencement of the institutions, notwithstanding the fact that they are talking. It is unfortunate but it seems to be a very dug-in position by both parties to the previous power sharing executives. How does the Taoiseach envisage Northern Ireland will be represented? The Taoiseach talked a number of minutes ago about negotiations between Britain and Ireland but, as the Taoiseach has been at pains to say to us, Ireland is very much in the EU 27.

Last week, Michael O'Leary said he saw a situation in which it was possible that air travel arrangements could be severely disrupted for a number of months in the event of a total British leaving. There was also an interesting comment by one of the Taoiseach's potential successors when the Minister for Social Protection said the Border would be a camera on a pole. I do not know if that was him acknowledging there was going to be a Border. For a lot of us, a camera on a pole could potentially be quite a hard Border and quite a difficult development. Was he speaking for the Government or was he just giving us the benefit of his thinking aloud?

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