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

I do not think we are going to get a breakthrough on this by mid summer, which was the hope, at the end of this month. I do not think there will be a request for an extension of the transition period.

As has previously been the case in Brexit negotiations, when decisions and leaps forward were made, we arrived at hugely pressurised crisis points and negotiators found a way through. It looks like we are going to see those kind of pressure points again in the future. I hope that this time we will able to find a way through, but I do not know if that will happen. I expect that progress will be made through Michel Barnier and his task force. Some use the negotiating strategy of taking the matter out of a task force and away from an agreed mandate and trying to get an agreement between heads of state, but I do not think that is the approach the EU will go for.

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