Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The debacle on Monday around the negotiations between the EU and the British Government has brought into sharp focus the difficulties involved in managing the Brexit process. Does the Taoiseach have any plans to increase the number of staff in his Department or to change how staff are deployed to deal with this issue? I am also concerned at the way the weekend's events were managed. Clearly, Brussels and the Irish Government believed that an agreement had been reached with the British. Experience of negotiations with successive British Governments, unionist leaders and Irish Governments has taught me, however, that until a deal is signed, sealed and delivered it is always best to be cautious. Over the weekend, and certainly from Sunday and into Monday, there was a lot of heavy briefing of the media. I do not know where the chain of command stands in that regard. Perhaps the strategic communications unit thought it was a good news story but there was lots of scéil about an emerging deal. A Government press conference was flagged up for most of Monday in the naive expectation that a deal would be announced. The end result was to give the DUP the excuse it needed.

The DUP leader followed up with ludicrous claims which added to the sense of amateur hour, confusion and farce. The big question is where the process goes from here. Is the Taoiseach prepared to block progress to phase two unless Britain gives formal written guarantees there will be no economic border?

From the briefing we received, it was not clear and, in fact, one could assume - if that is a safe thing to do - that citizens in the North will not have access to the European Court of Justice and the European institutions, like citizens of the European Union in Dublin, Cork or Paris. That was certainly absent from the communication that was relayed to us.

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