DUP digs heels in after ‘robust’ meeting with Coveney
THE DUP has refused to give ground on its border backstop opposition during a ‘robust and very frank’ meeting with Tánaiste Simon Coveney.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mr Coveney met party leader Arlene Foster at Stormont in a bid to offer reassurances on the withdrawal treaty’s most contentious provision. The meeting came during a packed schedule for Mr Coveney as he urged politicians and business and community representatives in Belfast to get behind the deal.
‘I don’t think anyone would have expected the conversation would have resulted in agreement on the backstop between the DUP and the Irish Government, but certainly I think it was useful to have an open and frank discussion,’ said Mr Coveney afterwards.
Ms Foster told the Tánaiste that the Irish Government and other EU members needed to drop their insistence on the backstop.
‘The backstop is not needed,’ she said. ‘No-one is going to build a hard border. We will work with the [UK] government to reach a better deal for the United Kingdom but this will require more pragmatism from the European Union.
‘Exiting the [EU] without a deal is not our favoured outcome. To reach a better deal will require a change of heart in Dublin and Brussels.’
Ms Foster, whose party described the exchanges with Mr Coveney as at times ‘very frank’, added: ‘The Withdrawal Agreement is not a fair deal and we cannot support it.’
Meanwhile, Mr Coveney said there was support for the deal among the groups he met yesterday. ‘In all the meetings we have had, there is very strong support for what the [British] prime minister [Theresa May] is advocating for now and I wanted to try to reinforce many of those messages,’ he said.
When asked did he think the DUP was ‘out of step’ with public opinion in the North, he said: ‘It’s not for me to say that. The DUP have a very important constituency, they are the largest party in Northern Ireland, I respect that, but I’ve got to listen to the other political parties too and business organisations and community organisations.’
Mr Coveney said his meeting with the DUP was ‘robust’. Earlier yesterday, he insisted a no-deal Brexit is not inevitable. Mr Coveney said those predicting a defeat for Theresa May when MPs vote on the Withdrawal Agreement next week should not take things for granted.
He also said that while Ireland would not interfere in the parliamentary process at Westminster, it did want to offer assurances that the border backstop was not what some Brexiteers were ‘misrepresenting’ and ‘spinning’ it as.