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

We must maintain close relations with the United States. The general approach I take towards other democratically elected leaders is to engage with them, which might be more successful than the alternative policy of the far left which is to shout them down and then ignore them. I just do not see how that approach could yield any positive results for the people who elect us.

I went to the US-Canada border out of interest. I wanted to see it at a time when everybody was talking about borders and I was not too far away. I went for my own education as much as anything else. On "Morning Ireland" I had heard somebody - maybe a former Brexit Minister in the UK - defending the idea of a technological, invisible or telepathic border. He specifically referred to the US-Canada border as a seamless, frictionless border so I wanted to see it. It is not a soft border. It is a hard border. Even though they have a free trade agreement, there are flags, border posts, dogs, guards and barriers and it is definitely not the kind of border I would like to see between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, or in the Irish Sea for that matter.

I do not think we should be building borders at all between Britain and Ireland.

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