Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is obviously part of the negotiations that are going to have to pan out. Cherry-picking would be having access without giving anything in return. Like I say, I do not wish to engage in a running commentary on the talks and I am not in a position to make any concessions on behalf of the European Union on the floor of the House. Any concessions or modification of the EU's position has to be done by the EU 27 acting together, and I cannot do that unilaterally. However, I stand over what I have said consistently, namely, that if the United Kingdom evolves from its red lines, which subject to the White Paper following through on what was said at Chequers I believe it has, then the European Union can be flexible about its guidelines. However, that change cannot be made by me. It has to be made by the EU 27 working together, and I am absolutely determined that we should continue to be part of team Europe and part of the EU 27. It is a strength in these negotiations that we are negotiating with the UK as Europe and that Ireland has not been isolated from other European countries or caught in the middle. I think that is the way we can get the best deal for Ireland and Northern Ireland. If things did go wrong for some reason and we did end up with a hard Brexit, a no-deal scenario, we would be better off with that being a shared problem for the EU 27 rather than with us going out on our own, having an independent position but at the end of it all looking for support and concessions from the EU, having broken the 27-member state consensus. Consequently, I am never going to do that.

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