Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would love to attend the Balmoral Show with Senator Marshall and the other Senators but it will not happen for me this year.

With regard to the North and Brexit, it is clear that the UK remaining aligned with the customs union is perhaps the only way to resolve the continuing dilemma over the UK's future relationship with the European Union, thereby removing the Irish backstop obligation. The matter is under discussion in Brussels between Michel Barnier's team and the team of the Brexit secretary, Mr. David Davis. Hopefully, they can find a suitable way through it. Alignment with the rules of the Internal Market and customs union, supporting North-South co-operation, the all-island economy and the Good Friday Agreement, would be a most suitable resolution, regardless of what it might be called. I am sure a term for it would not be beyond the bureaucrats and wordsmiths when necessary. This would mean the UK as a whole, not just Northern Ireland, remaining aligned and it would mean no customs checks either on the Border or on the Irish Sea. I am looking at Senator Marshall because I am sure he sees, perhaps more plainly than some of us, that this should suit all Irish interests, including those of the unionist community in the North, which seems to be so upset about the backstop and so forth. That is something we should encourage, and I have no doubt that we are doing that.