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

I shall respond to what has been said and I will also speak about the current state of play in the negotiations.

We all have an obligation to be cautious. What we are seeing is a permanent new reality in the relationships between Ireland and the UK and between the UK and the EU. Given the interwoven nature of the relationship between Ireland and Britain, from an economic perspective in particular but also in many other aspects, the idea that any significant change in that relationship is not going to require a fundamental level of planning and contingency work is hopefully resulting in the kind of unity and purpose between parties, in the context of what we need to do to protect our State. This is what we are doing, while also trying to maintain the closest possible relationship with our closest neighbour.

There has been much in the media recently about disagreements and conversations within the British political system around looking at options such as maximum facilitation versus customs partnership. Today and yesterday we have heard about the so-called "third option" whereby there is recognition that it would take a number of years to prepare and design any new way of dealing comprehensively with the Border that would not result in any physical infrastructure, and therefore we should maybe look at maintaining a shared customs territory with the UK on a temporary basis.

Currently, Britain is negotiating with itself. It is an internal discussion within the British political system and the British Cabinet. We must respect their right to do that so they can finalise their approach to these negotiations, but it is not unreasonable for us to remind everybody that time is running out. The real negotiation is between the British Government and the Barnier task force on behalf of the 27 EU countries. At a time when we are planning to have a withdrawal treaty text agreed by the end of October that is operable and accepted by both sides, and the EU guidelines call for a review of progress by the end of June, everybody on the EU side now accepts that there needs to be significant progress and a lot more clarity around how we will resolve some of the core issues, especially the Irish Border issues. It is not unreasonable for us to state quite clearly that the clock is ticking, as Michel Barnier has said, and that there is an obligation on all sides to try to move this forward. Brexit is not just about Britain, and this is a key message, it is about Ireland and other European Union countries too. The relationships we have and the respect we have for each other as countries hopefully will result in a sensible outcome that will protect the interests of multiple countries, as opposed to focusing solely on Britain's future and British political debate. If that is the sole focus then the EU would be forced to look at the sole interest of the EU and binary positions will be taken. It would then be a very difficult negotiation that would not be good for anybody but especially not for Ireland. This is because Ireland is more exposed, by far, to a bad outcome to these negotiations than any other EU country.

I now turn to the negotiations. I reaffirm for the House and for anybody who is listening that the understanding and support we are getting from the EU task force is comprehensive. I met with Michel Barnier on Monday and he is absolutely committed to understanding fully the detail of the Irish concerns and to try to protect the Irish interest. Mr. Barnier regards the Irish interests as EU interests. Over some months we have managed to build significant solidarity with the EU task force and among the other 26 member states involved in the negotiations on the EU side.

We have also reached out to the UK side. I have been in London a lot and the Taoiseach met the Prime Minister again today. We are actively talking, but not negotiating, with the British Government. The negotiation is a formal negotiation that must happen with the EU task force. What we are not flexible on is the outcome, which was committed to in December and again in March. For some weeks we have been calling for some new thinking from the UK side that could help to break the deadlock to allow the process to move forward in a way that is consistent with commitments that have already been given in black and white, in writing, by the British Prime Minister to the EU and to EU institutions on Irish issues in December and in March.

Our position will remain consistent, transparent and open. We have nothing to hide. Ireland's concerns are genuine and we hope we can find a way to move the negotiations forward in June, to build confidence that we can finalise the wording by October, and move on to the future relationship discussions that will also take some time and which will need to be comprehensive from an Irish perspective.

See this speech in context