Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are all agreed on that. However, this is a negotiation which will take time. Each time there is a round of agreement and negotiation, Ireland has made progress on each of its key issues. In December, we made a significant step forward in getting agreement on the backstop and how it would work in terms of maintaining full alignment of the rules of the customs union and Single Market to ensure an all-Ireland economy can function. That is a political agreement from which the British Government is not resiling.

It has said it wants to negotiate a legally operable text around what was committed in paragraph 49 in December. That for it, of course, is not the first priority in terms of agreement. It wants to get agreement on option A, a future relationship which does not require the backstop to be used. We support that position. We also will insist, however, as will the EU, that the backstop will be part of a withdrawal agreement before it is signed off. In other words, there will be no withdrawal agreement if there is not a backstop on the Irish Border issue, which is obviously linked to the text in the Irish protocol. That is what is being negotiated this week.

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