Not my job to sort the border, says Leo Varadkar Varadkar comment piles pressure on Theresa May - Times of London

Not my job to sort the border, says Leo Varadkar
Varadkar comment piles pressure on Theresa May

Jennifer Bray, Ireland Deputy Political Editor
June 25 2018, 12:01am,
The Times

The taoiseach said that talks would have to intensify for a deal to be struck in time
GARETH CHANEY/COLLINS

EU leaders will meet this week to decide whether to hold a special summit on the Irish border because not enough progress has been made in Brexit negotiations, Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar said yesterday that it was “not my job” to help Theresa May, the British prime minister, find a solution to avoid a hard border.

Both the taoiseach and Simon Coveney, the tánaiste, had already said that if substantial progress was not made by the EU council summit this Thursday it would be questionable whether a deal could be struck at all.

Speaking at Dublin Castle, Mr Varadkar distanced himself from that position and said “what is required is that negotiations intensify rather than setting deadlines”.

Opposition parties have called on the government to set a new deadline for the border issue to be resolved and ensure that it is not dismissed during Brexit negotiations.

Mr Varadkar said that a special summit could be held in September as he admitted that the June deadline for a new “backstop” agreement would be missed.

“The draft conclusions have now been signed off by the 27 governments,” he said.

“We are saying there has been some progress on some of the other aspects of the withdrawal agreement but there hasn’t been any progress since March on the Irish issue.

“EU countries are reaffirming their commitment to insisting that there is a backstop in the withdrawal agreement. There can be no withdrawal agreement without a backstop”.

The taoiseach said preparations were being made in ports and airports in case no deal could be struck and Britain crashed out of the European Union.

“Negotiations need to intensify in the coming weeks,” he said. “We are waiting for the British to produce their white paper on the future relationship. That is due in early July.

“It will be an intensification of negotiations rather than a stalling of negotiations. Also EU countries are going to begin preparations for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

“I don’t think that is likely, nobody does, but we have to think it is a possibility. And that means making preparations in our ports and airports for that eventuality”.

Pearse Doherty, the Sinn Féin finance spokesman, said that the government needed to “demand the Irish question is dealt with”.

“We need to set a new deadline. It’s obviously not met at this point in time,” he said.

“If we were to have this conversation a year ago what we’d all be saying is that the worst-case scenario for Ireland is that the Irish question is left to the last minute. That is the trajectory that this is on at the minute.”

In contrast Mr Varadkar said that negotiations were more important than deadlines as he hinted at a September gathering.

“Brexit happens in March but what we have done as the EU 27 is to say that we think October is the last time that you could realistically have a withdrawal agreement finalized because it does require parliamentary ratification both by the UK parliament and the European parliament and we would like to give the time between the end of October and the end of March to do exactly that.

“It is something that we are going to review at the summit in Brussels as to whether there is an argument for having a special summit, perhaps in September. I think really what is required is that negotiations intensify rather than setting deadlines.”

When asked about bilateral discussions between the UK and Ireland, Mr Varadkar said that he would speak to Mrs May this week but would not be offering any solutions.

“It’s not my job to help Mrs May,” he said. “The people of the United Kingdom decided on Brexit and it’s not my job to help prime minister May or the United Kingdom government. It’s my job to make sure that we don’t have a hard border on our island and make sure that whatever the new trading relationship is between the UK and the EU, that the negative effect of this is minimized.”

Paschal Donohoe, the finance minister, said that he would be in a position to outline the effect of a hard Brexit on the budget by September.

“After the summer we’ll have a far clearer idea than what we do now regarding what the British government can and cannot do,” he told The Week in Politics on RTÉ One.

“If we cannot get a backstop or better then we cannot commence discussions regarding the future relationship between the UK and the EU, we have to deliver that and stand by that view.”

Michael McGrath, the Fianna Fáil finance spokesman, said that the stakes “couldn’t be higher” for Ireland and that the backstop agreement that was put in place last December was oversold by the Irish government.

“We don’t want that to be caught up in complex negotiations that go right down to the wire, where absolutely everything is at stake for us,” he said.