David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Friday 8 December, the Taoiseach told the Irish people that the backstop agreement was "rock solid and cast iron" and this his Government "protected what it sought to protect and achieved what it sought to achieve". Paragraph 46 of the December joint report states the agreement is "made and must be upheld in all circumstances, irrespective of the nature of any future agreement between the European Union and United Kingdom."

Paragraph 49 states that while it is Britain's intention to achieve these objectives through an overall relationship with the EU, which every Member will support, the UK will propose "specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland" - or a backstop - should this not be possible. If there was no agreement between Britain and the European Union on trade, there was some certainty for businesses on either side of the Border and for the people in Ireland that there would be as much alignment as possible with the rules of the customs union and Single Market.

The Taoiseach's cast-iron guarantee is in tatters. A paper was published by the British Government a couple of days ago which essentially took the backstop off the table and turned it into a UK-wide extension of the implementation period. It is time-limited, and as Mr. Michel Barnier said, "Backstop means backstop". We have an extraordinary situation where we had something on the table that was a real and tangible political agreement, but that has been turned into something entirely different because of internal wrangling in the Tory party. We have to hold the Taoiseach to account, and the best way to do so is the promises he makes and the benchmarks he sets. He said this was cast iron. How could he say that if there are still wrangling over what it all means, and the British Government has come back with proposals which essentially takes it off the table?

The Taoiseach also said that he wanted to see real and substantial progress by June.

Nobody could argue with a straight face that we have seen real and substantial progress. In fact, it is quite the opposite because we have gone backwards. However, the Taoiseach is prepared to allow the farce to continue whereby the Irish issues are now in the melting pot in what will be very tough negotiations when the real pressure comes on in October. That is not what we were told; it is not what we were promised. The Taoiseach knows my party wants the Government to succeed on this issue because we all want the best for Ireland. We are in a very difficult place, however. What will be the Government's approach at the June summit? Will the Taoiseach hold firm to the commitment he made and will he ensure that there will not be any moving on from these issues until we get the real and substantial progress we were promised?

See this speech in context