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

On the issue of Brexit, the Border, the backstop and all that, last week I asked President Juncker whether we could trust him and the European Union on this issue. He looked slightly annoyed but shouted "yes", that we could trust them, across the Chamber. Is the Taoiseach fully confident that the European Union, if negotiations fail and there is no agreement with the UK, is not going to protect the Single Market and insist that some sort of Border is put in place?

I ask that because while I do not trust Mrs. Theresa May one inch and I find her Little Englander, xenophobic nationalism obnoxious in the extreme, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act that passed today in the Houses of Parliament, and this has not been mentioned in any media discourse, actually has legal provisions saying that there will be no Border. Section 17 of the Act says that after negotiations, regardless of the outcome of those negotiations, there will be no customs posts, no Border checks, no random stopping of cars or vehicles etc. There will be no Border. It is absolutely spelt out in the EU (Withdrawal) Act and that is law now in Britain. They can of course change the law and I do not trust them but at least it is in the law and it has been passed by the British Houses of Parliament. Where is the guarantee from the European Union?

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