Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach's difficulty is that he has, in fact, resiled from his stated negotiating position.

He has done it at a time that arguably could not be worse. We are at crunch time and truth time. We urged the Taoiseach and the Barnier negotiating team not to blink in their dealings with the Tories in London and to stay the course with the very reasonable bottom line protections that Ireland requires. The Taoiseach says we need an arrangement with no expiry date or unilateral exit clause, yet he countenances a review mechanism. All that serves to do is muddy the waters. I do not know if the Taoiseach has lost his nerve. I hope, for the sake of this country, that he has not. We do not need a review clause. We need a clear enunciation of the protections in legally operable text. That is what we have all agreed on and that is the job of work but yesterday, the Taoiseach potentially torpedoed all of that.

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