Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. The Taoiseach is flying to Sweden today for an EU summit. He will be meeting with other European colleagues and will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister May. The position of the Irish Government remains unchanged. We believe that there must a clear road map to achieve what has been announced as the objective of all parties, which is no return to a hard border, before we can proceed to the next stage. This has been an agreed approach by the UK, the EU and ourselves so there is clearly a view of what we need to achieve here. The Irish Government's view is very clear. We need to see a road map to deliver that. As the Deputy rightly said, a number of the pronouncements by politicians in the UK are inconsistent with achieving that so, clearly, the Irish Government's position is that we need a clear road map before we move to the next stage.

Of course, we are conscious that the next stage is vitally important to the very businesses described by the Deputy in his initial comments. We need long-term stable trading arrangements with the UK but we are very clear that before we move to the next stage, which would be to enter into the detailed negotiations on what form those trading relations should take, it is important that a satisfactory road map is put in place for the Border issue, which is one of the three issues that must be dealt with before progressing to the next stage. That remains the Irish Government's position. Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade have been very clear in articulating that to colleagues.

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