Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There has been consensus in this House about the need, whatever negotiations and disputes may be happening between the United Kingdom and the European Union, to maintain the position of having no hard border and to get those commitments. We saw from David Davis' comments that the British Government cannot be fully trusted and the constant repetition of "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" is still a slightly worrying backdoor out of commitments. That being said, I think everybody in this House has held fast to the key issue of having no hard border and should continue to do so but the pressure is undoubtedly going to intensify in the second phase as the trade discussions unfold between Britain and the European Union. We can see that Britain cannot entirely be trusted, given the elements that exist in the Tory party that have a hard Brexit perspective and do not really care about the consequences.

Has the Taoiseach had any indication from the EU about its attitude towards those trade negotiations? It seems to me that it makes no sense for anybody to have tariff barriers or borders, not just on a North-South basis but on an east-west basis. I worry, in the same way that there are fairly rotten politics from the Tories, that there is an element in the EU that wants to punish Britain for political reasons and may also be tempted in that regard when it comes to wider negotiations. We have to say that not only do we want no border between east, north and south, but it does not make any sense for anybody to play politics with getting a good deal which is good for everybody. That means ensuring we do not have custom barriers, tariff barriers or any other kind of barriers in as far as it is at all possible for everybody's best interests.

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