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

I can confirm that there will be no withdrawal agreement without a legally operable and legally binding backstop which assures us that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. That has been the Government's position since the referendum. That is our position. We have not departed from it and we do not intend to do so. We should not forget that the commitment given to us by the UK Government, which is in black and white in a report published jointly by the UK and the EU, says that there would have to be a legally operable backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement and that it would have to apply unless and until an alternative solution is found. All we are asking is for the UK to honour the commitments it has already made in black and white in the year gone by. I am sure a country like the UK, with its proud history, would want to do no less than honour the commitments it made in black and white and in writing during the course of this year.

The deadline has always been October. If one reads the guidelines from the European Council and if one reads what I have said in this Chamber since last March, if not before, one will see that the deadline has always been October. Of course there is a risk that it may slip. We indicated at the last summit in Salzburg that it may be necessary to hold a special summit in November to sign off on a withdrawal agreement. If it slips further, a summit is already scheduled for December. The deadline is October and that has not changed.

Significant progress has been made. The withdrawal agreement provides for the financial settlement. The money the UK will pay the EU to meet its obligations before it leaves is broadly agreed. We also have agreement on the rights of EU citizens who will continue to live in the UK and the rights of UK citizens who will continue to live in other parts of the EU. We have broad agreement on a transition period. It will run until the end of 2020, which will give businesses and citizens time to prepare for the permanent changes which will take place thereafter. We have agreement on the common travel area, which is of great importance for Irish and British citizens. It allows us to travel freely between Britain and Ireland. It allows us to live, work, study and access housing, healthcare and education in each other's countries as though we were citizens of both. Other EU citizens will not have this right after Brexit. We have yet to reach agreement on the detail of the Irish protocol, which is also known as the backstop, and on the text of the future relationship that will exist between the EU and the UK after the transition period. There is still quite a gap there and quite a good bit of work to be done.

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