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

When it comes to Brexit, we should always remember what we are trying to achieve. First, we are trying to achieve a withdrawal agreement so that there is an orderly departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. We want there to be a transition period so that businesses and individuals have two years or more to prepare for any permanent changes that might take place. That is very important for our economy and jobs. We want to protect the common travel area, and people know why that is. We want to protect funding such as PEACE and INTERREG, particularly for Northern Ireland and the Border counties. We want to guarantee the rights and freedoms of European citizens living in Northern Ireland after Brexit. When it comes to the backstop, we need one as part of the withdrawal agreement to guarantee that there will never be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It may never need to be used, and if it does need to be used, it may well be temporary, but we do need it, and it must apply unless and until a new agreement is in place to supersede it. Therefore, there can be no expiry date and no unilateral exit clause. Were there to be either of those things, the backstop would not be worth the paper it is written on. That is the position of the Government. That has not changed.

A review clause would have to be negotiated. We have yet to see proposals from the UK as to what it would look like, but if we do have a backstop, if it is used, if it does apply, and if it potentially lasts into perpetuity, it may be to our advantage or necessary at various times to have a review. A review is different from an exit clause and we cannot accept an exit clause that would allow the UK to resile unilaterally from the backstop, nor could we accept an expiry date. That has always been the position of the Irish Government.

We want there to be an agreement. Sometimes, to come to an agreement, especially as the point is reached where an agreement might be possible, one needs to be creative, and that means being creative around solutions and language. There would have been no Good Friday Agreement if John Hume, Seamus Mallon, David Trimble and even Gerry Adams did not understand that. There would have been no European treaties if people who negotiated them did not understand that. I know Deputy McDonald was against all of those European treaties before she became in favour of them. Yes, I am open to creative solutions and, yes, I am open to creative language, but I will not resile from the fundamental position that there must be a backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement and that backstop cannot have an expiry date or unilateral exit clause.

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