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

If we face a no-deal scenario, obviously we have a dilemma. The United Kingdom will be bound by WTO rules and we will have EU laws around the protection of the Single Market and the customs union, and we have the Good Friday Agreement, which I believe is paramount. Part of the Good Friday Agreement is that we keep the Border open and invisible between the two islands. It may not be written into it, but I believe it is implicit in it, so I think at that point we would need an agreement on customs regulations between the EU and the UK, and we have one now and I would like to see it ratified.

On Article 50 being extended, I cannot say whether it will be extended or not. It really is up to the United Kingdom to make an application for an extension, should it so wish, but I do note that it is quite far behind in its plans, in particular its legislative plans, with regard to Brexit, much further behind than we are.

I did not have any discussions on alternative wording with Prime Minister May. I believe that would constitute negotiation and negotiation really can only happen between the EU on the one side, including Ireland, and the UK on other, but we did discuss what might be acceptable to the UK Government and it will not surprise anyone in this House to know that it is in the space of either alternative arrangements yet to be defined, or a time limit or unilateral exit clause for the backstop, and that is something we cannot accept. I understand where the British Government is coming from. It has a real fear that the backstop might become a trap and were the backstop invoked that the UK could end up permanently in the orbit of the European Union against its will, so we need to find a way that provides an assurance to the UK Parliament and the UK Government that that will not happen, while at the same time not diluting our legally binding and legally operable guarantee that there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

I do not wish to comment on Venezuela in much detail because I have spoken on it before, other than to say that neither I nor the Government would support or endorse military action in Venezuela by any other country, including the United States, but we do advocate that there would be free elections, the restoration of democracy and human rights and that economic opportunity for the people of Venezuela should be restored.

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