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

It is a fair question. We cannot just hope that this issue will go away. As the Prime Minister said, the solution to the Border will not emerge simply because people sit around and say we will not have one. It is not just about aspiration; it is about practicality at this point and providing guarantees in law. That is what we are at here.

There is a shared responsibility on this island from both the British and Irish Governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement to ensure that we protect that Agreement and that peace process and in a contingency where there is a no-deal Brexit there is an obligation, quite frankly, on those who have caused this problem to come up with solutions. In particular, if there are people who reject the approach of the backstop, which was, by the way, a position agreed by the British, by us and by the EU, there is an onus on them to outline how they would solve this issue. That is the difference between this issue, in terms of contingency, and many other issues that we deal with on our own or in partnership with the EU.

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