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

I welcome our friends from Colombia. The Minister formally opened the new Colombian embassy in Dublin yesterday and we opened an embassy in Bogota in the past 12 months. The relationship between our two countries is closer than ever before. The Minister is very welcome. I look forward to visiting Colombia, hopefully at some point in the next six to nine months.

Deputy Crowe is correct about the concerns of those in Border communities. I have met many of them. This is a cause of real anxiety. When I say that we will not sign up to a compromise deal that essentially involves acquiescing to introducing infrastructure on or near the Border, I mean it. I say that because of the concerns of the people to whom I refer. We need to be firm, if respectful, and state that we expect the UK to honour the commitments it has given to Ireland and the EU during the negotiations. We must also indicate that will not allow a situation whereby, in order to solve a difficulty at Westminster, we would create a significant problem for Ireland for the foreseeable future and that the Border would dominate politics here again. We all thought we had left the latter behind two decades ago. In the context of a decision the UK - not Ireland - has made, it is not unreasonable to request that Irish interests in this regard be protected. It is in the context of a no-deal scenario - when we may be forced to make difficult decisions in order to protect both our place in the Single Market and the Good Friday Agreement - we must state that we regard any arrangements put in place as temporary while we continue to negotiate in respect of the same issues on which we are negotiating now. The EU has made it clear, through a European Council decision, that no formal trade negotiations between the EU and UK will be opened until the three issues in the withdrawal agreement - citizens' rights issues, the financial settlement and the Irish Border question - are addressed in full. We will continue our campaign, if necessary through a no-deal, to try to protect this island against the political impact on communities of the reintroduction of Border infrastructure.

I will try to and answer Deputy Crowe's question on what the House in respect of Brexit in the context of a later question on the matter.

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