Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It gave rise to the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF. It is something that benefits the country and I will continue to pursue and build on the work done by the Deputy in that regard. He said we could not act until we knew. That is correct, but we can prepare for different scenarios. It is my intention that we should prepare for different but the most likely ones scenarios.

I would be loath to have Ireland proffer solutions that involve different forms of border. When I hear people talk about there being no hard border, it implies there will be a soft border. When I hear people say we will not go back to the borders of the past, that implies that there will be borders of the future. I would be reluctant for an Irish Government to proffer what a border of the future might look like because our preferred solution is something different, namely, that Britain reconsider leaving the customs union and the Single Market. We do not want it to leave. I told the Prime Minster, Theresa May, yesterday, that while respecting its decision, Britain was welcome to rejoin or reconsider should it wish to do so. If that cannot be done, we would like to see a transitional agreement or a UK-EU trade agreement or a wider agreement that would result in a new status quothat was not terribly different from what we already have in the customs union and the free trade area. I would rather work towards this than be in the business of making proposals to create a modern new border which I do not want and which I think this House does not want.

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