Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy asked a lot of questions - a lot of good questions. I caution against people taking their lead in respect of these negotiations from media reports today. There have been intensive efforts this week by both negotiating teams to try to find a way forward. As Mr. Michel Barnier said yesterday, the vast majority of the text of the withdrawal treaty has been agreed. That is not new; we have known that for a while. The last 10% to 15% is difficult. Most of it involves Ireland. There are some other issues also. The intensification of discussions this week is primarily about trying to find a way forward to follow through on the commitments that have already been made in these negotiations, including last December and last March, to have a legally operable text that follows through on last December's commitment to an Irish backstop, which provides the guarantee that there will be no border infrastructure on this island in the future. The British and EU approaches to that have been somewhat different. The two negotiating teams are trying to find a way such that the European Union can be sure it protects the integrity of its Single Market and customs union in the future. The United Kingdom obviously wants to try to protect the integrity of the United Kingdom economically and reassure unionists, in particular, that there will be no significant new barriers to trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. There is a difficult political job for the negotiators. We need to give them the time and space to do it. I expect we will get a report on Monday to what is called COREPER in Brussels. We will have a General Affairs Council meeting. I will be meeting Mr. Michel Barnier on Tuesday morning, at which meeting we will get an in-depth readout of where the negotiations have gone over the past week or ten days. We are obviously speaking to the task force on a daily basis and getting briefings from it.

There is much focus and media attention on this issue because so much is at stake. We should, however, rely on the accounts that come from the task force and the British negotiating team directly rather than on rumours and reports that may or may not be based on fact. We are at a very delicate stage in these negotiations at which we need to find agreement, and time is running out. I am optimistic that an agreement can be reached. To my knowledge, the two negotiating teams do not yet have an agreed position on the Irish backstop, but the work continues.

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