Leo: We’re not going to relent on border
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has said preventing a hard border on this island is more important than trade or money.
Asked if an extensive trade deal with the UK would be more important than the border issue in Brexit talks, the Taoiseach insisted that protecting the peace process was paramount.
‘They’re both important, but the issue of avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is about much more than trade and about much more than money,’ he told reporters. ‘It’s about maintaining our peace process and allowing people that live on either side of the border to continue to lead normal lives and to lead peaceful lives just like they have for the last 20 years, and something like that has to be of paramount importance.’
He added: ‘Our objective is to achieve both: to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and also to have a very close trading relationship with Britain.’
The Taoiseach was speaking from the New York Stock Exchange where he rung the bell yesterday morning and remarked: ‘That’s another thing off my bucket list.’
He reiterated his belief that the Government will succeed in preventing a hard border, but he refused to be drawn on the UK government’s forthcoming white paper proposals – which are being treated with a huge degree of scepticism in Brussels.
‘The absolute priority of the Irish Government is, as always, to maintain citizens’ rights, to keep the common travel areas between Britain and Ireland in place – we’ve achieved that; to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and I believe we’ll achieve that.’
He added: ‘The tricky part which we’re going to work really hard on is trying to ensure that free trade between Britain and the rest of the European Union, and between Britain and Ireland and the rest of the European Union, continues.’
British prime minister Theresa May’s cabinet is deeply divided over what path to take on Brexit, with some hardliners threatening a coup if she does not side with them.
A crunch meeting of her cabinet is scheduled for Friday, after which its proposals are supposed to be made clear.
Mr Varadkar also denied reports that the Revenue Commissioners are scouting locations for a return of a border in a no-deal scenario.
He said: ‘No, and, if they are, they are certainly not doing it at the direction of Government – and, if they are, they can stop. We are not contemplating a physical border between Northern Ireland and Ireland – that is simply not going to happen.’
‘It is simply not going to happen’