Tag Archives: Brexit

UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

In a private meeting with party leaders last night, Mr Varadkar and his department secretary general John Callinan said unless the Irish question is resolved, the EU could hypothetically move control of any border away from Ireland and onto the continent.

Such a scenario would remove the need for a hard border between the Republic and the North.

However, it would also mean Ireland and the UK would be treated as one bloc, several sources at the meeting told the Irish Examiner, which must be “avoided at all costs”.

Meanwhile…

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet briefing, Mr Varadkar’s spokesperson said “the Government is not in denial” over the scale of the crisis.

However, he repeatedly declined to explain how to avoid a no-deal Brexit without using the withdrawal agreement or the backstop, stressed “there are no preparations for a hard border”, and said it remains up to Britain to find a solution.

Ireland faces isolation with Britain as EU border mooted (Irish Examiner)

Barnier says time-limited backstop would be useless (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe at government buildings this afternoon

…Earlier, Mr Schinas [European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas] said he had heard nothing new since British Prime Minister Theresa May laid out a tweaked divorce plan yesterday.

“If you’d like me to push me and speculate on what might happen in a no-deal scenario in Ireland, I think it is pretty obvious: you will have a hard border,” he said.

Mr Schinas also expressed frustration as journalists questioned him over the next steps in the negotiation.

“In all honesty, I have a terrible sense of déjà vu in all these exchanges,” he said. “There is nothing else that I can meaningfully say.”

‘Difficult’ to prevent border infrastructure without withdrawal agreement (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Tánaiste Simon Coveney meeting with Michel Barnier this morning

Tony Connelly, of RTÉ, reports:

The EU’s chief negotiator has said the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Irish backstop, was “the best deal possible” for the UK in the Brexit negotiations.

In an interview with RTÉ News, Mr Barnier dismissed reports of a bilateral arrangement between the UK and Ireland, saying the EU negotiated as one team.

Mr Barnier said the focus was now on the future relationship and the Political Declaration which sketches that relationship.

He said the EU was prepared to work again on the declaration to make it more “ambitious”.

EXCLUSIVE: Barnier insists Brexit deal is the best possible (RTE)

Pic: Tony Connelly

Boris Johnson

This morning,

During his speech, Mr [Boris] Johnson {former British Foreign Secretary] said the answer was to “get back in the cab, turn around and face the real obstacles”.

He said Mrs [Theresa] May’s main concern should be to have the backstop on the island of Ireland removed and to use the transition period to come up with a new trade deal.

He added: “She can go back to Brussels, and she should go back to Brussels and say that the British House of Commons doesn’t accept the democratic consequences of the arrangement you have imposed in the form of the backstop. It’s got to come out.”

Boris Johnson: Abandoning Article 50 would be ‘pathetic’ (Sky)

Yesterday: Perfidious Albion, Duplicitous Hibernia

Rollingnews

Keano writes:

“This Irish man decided to taste the madness and tension of the Parliament Square Brexit protests in London as they reached a peak this Monday on Brexit vote day.

“The first ten mins here summarise 12 hours within Brexit Ground Zero, where I encountered Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg amongst the crazy mix of God4brexit, Brexit2Mars, several unicorns, and the Brexit Grim Reaper.”

Previously: For Your Consideration

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Prime Minister Theresa May at No. 10 Downing Street in 2017

“Where they see perfidious Albion, the British see duplicitous Hibernia, and have been given just as much reason to do so.

A guarantee against a hard border, perfectly legitimate for stand-alone economic and security reasons, has instead been demanded to “protect the Belfast Agreement in all its parts”, although no part of the agreement requires it.

Securing this demand via Brussels has been proclaimed by the Irish Government as a diplomatic triumph and the centrepiece of its Brexit strategy.

At the same time Stormont has collapsed and Sinn Féin is demanding a Border poll; the Taoiseach has erroneously threatened “a form of joint authority” via the agreement’s east-west body, the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference; Brexit has been described as breaching the consent principle, although the legal inaccuracy of this could scarcely be clearer; and every effect on cross-Border co-operation has been portrayed as violating the agreement rather than just impacting certain bodies within their remit.

No wonder unionists in particular suspect the Irish of seizing their moment…”

Backstop has backfired and poisoned UK-Irish links (Newton Emerson, Irish Times)

Irish PM denies having secret no-deal Brexit plan for border checks (The Guardian)

Meanwhile…

Motorists may soon be obliged to carry ‘proof of insurance’ Green Cards for travel in the UK and Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland has advised that insurers and insurance brokers will provide ‘Green Cards’ to motor insurance policyholders who travel to the UK, including to Northern Ireland.

MIBI issues no-deal Brexit warning to motorists (RTÉ)

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

This afternoon.

In the Dáil, during Leaders’ Questions.

Following on from MPs in London voting down the UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal 432 to 202…

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said:

“This is a problem that began in Westminster, with the referendum on Brexit. We found a solution – the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated over months and months, agreed by 28 governments.

“And now Westminster has rejected that solution. So the problem lies in Westminster. And I welcome the fact the Prime Minister has said that she’s now going to engage with senior politicians from all parties to see if they can come together with a way forward, with a Brexit that commands a majority in the House of Commons.

“But whatever they come up with must be acceptable to us in Ireland the European Union as a whole.”

Watch Dáil proceedings live here

Earlier: Standstill

UPDATE:

A Leave campaigner outside the UK’s House of Commons yesterday

This morning

“It is up to the British authorities today or tomorrow to assess the outcome of this vote and up to the British government to indicate how we are going to take things forward on March 29 to an orderly withdrawal…”

“Now, with this standstill, until we have found a way forward which will see a full majority we won’t be able to move forward, so this is why the future steps must be indicated very clearly … by the British government.”

Michel Barnier EU’s chief Brexit negotiator

Meanwhile…

Brexit at a ‘standstill’ after May’s Commons defeat, says Barnier (The Guardian)

Pic: Getty

Earlier today.

DUP leader Arlene Foster speaking in Westminster ahead of the vote on UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons this evening.

LIVE: Decision day at Westminster (RTE)