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

The outcome has to give us what was agreed to last December and must become law, namely, a legally binding and operable backstop in the withdrawal agreement. Without it, there cannot be a withdrawal agreement, as everyone should understand at this stage.

In essence, dedramatisation is about trying to move away from language such as "a border in the Irish Sea". People can misinterpret such terms as referring to some form of constitutional border. No one is disputing the constitutional status of Northern Ireland which will be part of the United Kingdom until such time as the people there vote to say otherwise. Sometimes when language of the kind referred to is used, it can be seen as some sort of constitutional move or grab. It is not part of the Irish Government's agenda to change the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. As I have often said, I do not want a border between Larne and Stranraer anymore than I want one between Newry and Dundalk. The things being examined include the checks that may need to take place. We already have checks taking place on an east-west basis, including sanitary and phytosanitary standards, SPS, checks for agricultural products coming from Britain to Ireland. We also have certain North-South checks in relation, for example, to cigarettes and excise duty on diesel. We are trying to profile the checks which might take place, but the principle remains that there should be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

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