Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The backstop and the form it takes are crucial. To allow those negotiations only to be decided upon at the time when everything else is in the melting pot is the wrong strategy for this country. There are serious dangers in it. The best strategy the Brits could have hoped for is that these issues would have been all dealt with together. I have asked the Tánaiste a very simple question. They have missed the deadline. We expected serious progress. They are now intending to roll this into October. We need to take the initiative and inform European thinking. I am asking the Tánaiste to make it very clear on the Government's behalf that there needs to be another deadline set and another Council summit and that we will not allow this to roll into October.

The Tánaiste mentioned that the British Government is negotiating with itself and that this process needs to conclude. That process may never conclude. That is why we need to put firm deadlines in place. The Minister For Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, stated on radio this morning that contingency plans are made for all scenarios including Britain crashing out of the EU. When will the Government give certainty to people, commuters and businesses about what that means for the Border? We know there were contingency plans previously developed by the Revenue, which looked at checks. The Tánaiste mentioned that if there is regulatory non-alignment there will need to be checks. When can we bring some certainty to businesses that are deeply concerned about the likelihood of no backstop arrangement, which will mean no withdrawal agreement and Britain crashing out of the European Union?

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