Looming hard border is no joke, Taoiseach

IF everyone in this country is agreed on one thing, it is that the backstop insisted on by our Government is an absolutely vital element of any withdrawal agreement entered into by the United Kingdom, to prevent the nightmare scenario of a hard border. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, though, the backstop will be irrelevant. If the UK starts to trade on World Trade Organisation terms, then there will be a border.

It is important we stand by the backstop, but equally important that we continue to work with Theresa May and her government to find a way for the UK to exit with a deal – and that requires careful diplomacy.

Despite worries that, at the last minute, the European Union would sell Ireland out to protect its own economic interest, both Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk had been four-square behind the backstop, and they have made that repeatedly clear.

MPs in Britain have voted not to leave the EU with no deal, and for now, that seems to have slender public support – but the more a perception grows among ordinary Britons that the EU and Ireland are somehow out to get them, the mood can change.

Instead, Donald Tusk spoke yesterday of a ‘special place in hell’ for those who led the Leave campaign with no exit strategy in place. Diplomatic? This was incendiary. Surely he must have known that even if he meant only the likes of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and their ilk, the very real danger was that it would be interpreted to mean all 17 million people who voted for Brexit.

And while the comments have caused entirely predictable anger, they were amplified by Leo Varadkar’s whispered aside, with a broad smile, that Mr Tusk would face hostility from Britain for making them. Why did the Taoiseach laugh? At the very time he should have remained stony-faced and statesmanlike, he reverted to the bizarre naivete he has sometimes shown before on the world stage.

Mr Varadkar was in a very strong position yesterday morning: the EU had reiterated its support for Ireland and the backstop. Thereafter, both Mr Tusk and the Taoiseach then had one job – to soothe public sentiment in the UK and assure the British people we want to help them find a way through the impasse.

Instead, utterly unnecessary comments have inflamed the situation. We cannot afford to let this happen again – or we may end up precipitating the very outcome we have fought so hard to avoid.