Tánaiste Simon Coveney in the Dáil
This afternoon.
Brexit was raised during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney said he will be bringing two Brexit papers to Cabinet this evening when it meets at 8.30pm.
He said the Brexit negotiations have “intensified significantly” in recent days and those will continue.
He said:
“Ireland is not going to allow a situation where the UK, leaving the European Union without a deal, drags Ireland out of the single market with it.
“We cannot allow that situation. And what I mean by that is, the response being a checks in EU ports, on all Irish products. That is not a runner and will cause significant damage to our economy so we will not allow it.
“So what we need to do, and what we are doing now, is we have intensified our discussions with the European Commission on how we respond to that dual responsibility of protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process and the relations on this island as best we can.
“While at the same time, reassuring that we can reassure other EU countries that Ireland is protecting the integrity of the single market that we all share.”
“….We have to find a way of ensuring, as I say, that we protect the single market’s integrity but that we avoid physical border infrastructure on the border.
“And that is something that we do not have an agreed plan on. But we are working this week and presumably into next week on, if we need to, in the context of an no-deal Brexit.”
Fianna Fáil’s deputy leader Dara Calleary told Mr Coveney that every party in the Dáil wants to work with him in preparation of a no-deal Brexit.
He said members of the Dail should be allowed to see, or have some knowledge of, the Government’s “plan”.
He added: “Hope is no longer a strategy. You’ve hoped for a long, long time but it seems, whether by accident or design, we’re going towards a hard Brexit.”
During his response, Mr Coveney said:
“The Government isn’t hiding anything from anybody. There isn’t a plan. What we are doing is we are working out a plan with the European Commission because it involves both the European Commission and the Irish Government to actually try to ensure that we fulfil our dual responsibilities as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and as a committed member of the European Union and a single market and customs union.”
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Sorry, this is not directly relevant to the above except Simon Coveney has announced that there will be two changes to rent pressure zone rules which will be welcomed by tenants. One, the rent pressure zones will be extended from three to four years, though he expressed it as saying “they will be extended to 2021” and secondly, the average national rent that needs to be exceeded before an RPZ is imposed will no longer include Dublin, which I interpret to mean, most of the country (apart from a few north/western counties) will come under the RPZ rules. Won’t make any difference to those looking for a rented home, or who have recently seen a rent increase, but it will benefit most renters, or at least keep annual increases to a still inflation-busting 4%. It will probably drive a few landlords out of the market also, especially those in areas where property prices have increased.
Failing to plan, planning to……. ah sure we know that saying.
All along Varadkar and the boys have been winging it. The ‘ah sure it’ll be alright’ schoolboy outlook. We saw the same with their attempts to hide the reality of the costs of the children’s hospital, the Siteserv Broadband charity. And this will bit them a lot harder.
Boys pretending to be men.
Failing to plan, planning to……. ah sure we know that saying.
All along Varadkar and the bots have been winging it. The ‘ah sure it’ll be alright’ schoolboy outlook. We saw the same with their attempts to hide the reality of the costs of the children’s hospital, the Siteserv Broadband charity. And this will bite them a lot harder.
Boys pretending to be men.
So, it’s not just kissing up to the EU and playing “best in class’ politics….and self-serving motives for career-paths beyond the Dail. Coveney and Varadkar appear different on the surface but they have much in common – they aren’t transparent, they prefer to wind down the clock when questioned and they are more interested in moving up the power ladder than being responsible and appreciating their positions. And best of all, the opposition has never been weaker – all in favour of every EU ratification, all in favour of the latest initiative to weaken the family in Ireland. Overloads, indeed….Irish politics has never been this uninteresting.