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

It certainly could be a disastrous few weeks. This is why we must think about these things. No one knows for sure, however, what would happen in a scenario in which the UK were to crash out of the European Union without a deal. We do know the UK would have certain obligations under the rules of World Trade Organization, WTO, for example, but we do not even know if it will be able to join the WTO. Deputies will know the UK has had difficulties joining aspects of the WTO because of the objections of Moldova, so this is very much uncharted territory.

We should not see protection of the Single Market through the prism of the demand of a kind of unreasonable EU overlord. It is our Single Market, and the whole basis behind it is that we are aligned in respect of regulations on health and safety, labour rights, workers' rights, state aid and competition. This is not a bad thing. The Single Market is a good thing for Ireland because it ensures not only that we have free trade all across the European Union but also that there is a level playing field and certain standards. We should want to protect the Single Market, therefore, but this cannot involve the installation of a hard border or physical infrastructure on the Irish Border.

I think that in a no-deal scenario we would find ourselves having to come up with a deal. We would have to come to some kind of agreement on regulations and customs to avoid a hard border in order that the UK would honour its obligations as a member of the WTO and that we would continue to honour our obligations as an EU member. The point I was making is that if we had no deal, we would find ourselves having to find a deal very quickly. Why then put our countries and people through this when we now have a deal on the table, a deal that was negotiated by 28 member states, has been agreed by the UK Cabinet and, I hope, this Dáil will endorse today? Why go through this scenario when we now have a proposal on the table that works?

Obviously, the best outcome would be for the UK not to leave the European Union at all, but the UK has ruled that out. An alternative solution would be for the UK to stay in the Single Market and the customs union, staying in the European Economic Area, EEA, but it has ruled that out. Another solution would be a Canada plus model for Britain with a Northern Ireland-specific backstop, but it has ruled that out too. We are not the ones who have been ruling out solutions all along. We are the ones who have been working very hard to find a solution. We have that solution now, it is on the table, I hope the Dáil will endorse it today, and I hope and expect the European Council will endorse it on Sunday. Let us see what happens in Westminster afterwards. I think I used the term "very difficult" last week. We in politics do things that are very difficult all the time. It was very difficult to repeal the eighth amendment but it was done. I was a little surprised to see "very difficult" interpreted as "inevitable" because very difficult things are never inevitable.

Regarding my meeting with Mrs. Arlene Foster, as Deputies know, she is someone I know very well. She was my counterpart when the institutions were up and running, and we understand each other very well. Much of the discussion we had when we last met concerned practical co-operation between North and South on transport projects, healthcare and tourism. Mrs. Foster has a particular interest in children's health and the use of our hospitals here to provide cardiac surgery to children from the North. I have a particular interest in what we are doing in Altnagelvin about radiotherapy and primary percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI, for people living in Donegal. Deputy Micheál Martin talks about the role we are playing in trying to persuade the DUP to sign up to this agreement, but this misunderstands matters. When one engages a lot with DUP representatives, one must understand that they are very much a hardline unionist party, and they would not be annoyed at being described as such. This means they are not well disposed to taking advice from Irish Governments or being persuaded by Irish Governments or Irish political parties, so any dialogue in which one engages must be respectful and sensitive. I know that when Deputy Martin met Mrs. Foster, he tried to persuade her that Northern Ireland should have the best of both worlds, but this totally misunderstands her view. It is not the best of both worlds the DUP wants. The DUP holds very firm to the view that the most important thing is the integrity of the United Kingdom, the precious union. If this means a lesser world, that is acceptable provided that the integrity of the union is upheld.

What we have tried to do, therefore, as best we can is to say to people in Northern Ireland, particularly those in the unionist community, that what we are proposing and what the EU and the UK Government are now proposing should not be seen in constitutional terms as a threat to the United Kingdom or any effort to separate Northern Ireland from Great Britain. Written into the Irish protocol, the backstop, are two provisions, one respecting the principle of consent, that the constitutional status of Northern Ireland cannot be changed unless the majority of people in Northern Ireland want it to change, the other respecting the fact that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, respecting the territorial integrity of the UK.

This is why calls for Border polls, whether from Sinn Féin or People Before Profit, are really unhelpful at present. What we are trying to say to unionists in Northern Ireland is that at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement is acceptance of the principle of consent, acceptance not only that Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but also that Northern Ireland is different and needs special arrangements on occasion. Special arrangements in respect of customs and regulations for industrial goods should not be seen as a constitutional threat. When people start to talk about Border polls, however, it really undermines the work we are trying to do to convince people that that is not what this is about.

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