For ‘almost Trumpian levels of spin’
But after Mr Coveney said the EU had worked hard to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to avoid a hard Irish border, UUP MLA Doug Beattie MC said his statement “displays almost Trumpian levels of spin”.
“The Irish Government continues to make statements totally ignorant of unionist concerns,” Mr Beattie said. “They may have avoided a hard border on the Island of Ireland, but they certainly have not protected the Belfast Agreement in all its parts.
“The issue is that the Irish
Government doesn’t want to acknowledge that they have been part of the problem by getting swept away by the EU making them the darlings of the negotiations and focusing all their energy on the land border on the island of Ireland, forgetting how dependent they are on the GB market.
“They can continue on this world tour of finding people to agree with on how terrible they think the UK Government are, or they can return to the pragmatism and goodwill that has solved problems and saw relations across these islands flourish in the past.”
He called for the kind of “pragmatism in action” he witnessed at The Executive Office Committee on Wednesday when he questioned the Seanad Éireann select committee on Brexit issues. “While it was heartening to hear leading Irish politicians show an understanding and acceptance of unionist concerns over the damage the Irish Sea Border causes to the Belfast Agreement, it is deeply frustrating that senior figures continue to look away,” he added.