Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to welcome the Tánaiste and his officials to the House once again. I join everyone who has spoken in this evening's debate in rightly commending the Tánaiste and the team in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on their sterling efforts over a difficult number of years. I believe the first Brexit preparedness meeting in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade took place in December 2014, which was long before the referendum took place. It is quite reasonable to say that the Irish Government was prepared for the fallout from Brexit long before the British Government was. I think that is starting to come true.

It is right to acknowledge that we are at a very delicate stage in the negotiations. Given that all of this was due to be solved at the European Council meeting in October, it can be said, without leaning too heavily on a sporting analogy, that we are in the championship minutes or in injury time.

I would like to pick up on a point that was eloquently made by Senator McDowell. The atmosphere at the moment is very difficult. We need to be careful about what we read, tweet and retweet. Most importantly, we must remember that words matter, as our President has said in the context of other issues. The briefing and the spin in the British media in recent weeks has been quite spectacular. A report in the London edition of The Timescited a French diplomat who had apparently said that France was prepared to alter the backstop. That afternoon, the Tánaiste, the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, and the French ambassador absolutely reaffirmed France's solidarity with the Irish position. Approximately a week later, the Financial Timesreported that a German diplomat had said the German position was that the backstop needed to be surrendered. Chancellor Angela Merkel came out within hours to clarify that European and German solidarity with Ireland's position is absolutely whole. In the past week, such reporting has spread further into The Daily Telegraphand - I would argue - some of our own publications. It is quite spectacular that the same story can be reported completely differently in the two leading newspapers of this State on the same morning.It is very worrying because that spills out into political rhetoric. We saw certain comments in the Dáil by very experienced Deputies who should know that working off rumour and hearsay is not good enough.

Of course, words matter and using terms like "concessions" based on rumours and tweets is not responsible. That is what we must look at. A deal is possible and I very much hope one is imminent. However, we cannot risk the spectre of a no deal scenario despite what some politicians in other jurisdictions want to say, which is likely to be what might further their domestic aims. I commend the Tánaiste and his officials on their work. I look forward to travelling to Helsinki in the morning to attend the EPP congress, which is the largest collection of European politicians across the continent, where they will once again reaffirm all remaining EU member states' commitment to and solidarity with the Irish position as well as the solidarity of the many parties from non-EU countries in the EPP political family. That is a great credit to the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and the rest of their team.