Guess who’s coming to dinner!
THERESA May arrives in Dublin this evening for what could prove to be a decidedly awkward one-onone dinner with the Taoiseach at Farmleigh House.
Officially, the meeting is focused on restoring the Northern Ireland power-sharing government: Ireland, after all, cannot hold bilateral engagements with Britain on Brexit as negotiations are conducted between the EU27 and the UK
There is little doubt, however, that the discussion will stray to the topic of Brexit and the contentious backstop that is currently blocking a deal.
Tensions between the EU and UK worsened this week after European Council president Donald Tusk remarked that there is a ‘special place in hell’ for those who led the Brexit campaign without any sense of how to actually deliver it.
Speaking after talks with EU leaders in Brussels yesterday, Mrs May said she told Mr Tusk the comments were ‘unhelpful’, and had ‘caused dismay’ in the UK.
On a visit to Washington DC, Tánaiste Simon Coveney called them ‘a touch provocative’.
Tonight’s dinner – which will be attended by Mr Varadkar and Mrs May only – will cap a busy day for the Taoiseach who travels to Belfast this afternoon for a meeting with the five main political parties before returning to Dublin for the
meeting with Mrs May. Sources close to the Taoiseach have said there is a ‘fresh determination’ to find solutions to the border issue, protect the Good Friday Agreement and get Stormont back up and running two years after its collapse.
A source told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Ireland is a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and restoring the institutions is a constant priority. The Taoiseach is due a visit to the North anyway and this certainly won’t be the last visit in the first half of this year either.’
Westminster will vote on the Brexit deal for a second time next week, after it suffered a historic defeat by a margin of 230 votes first time around.
During a visit to Brussels yesterday, Mrs May’s bid to alter the Withdrawal Agreement was predictably rejected by European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker, but the pair have committed to further talks. In a joint statement, the EU opened the possibility of firming up language in the political declaration ‘in order to be more ambitious in terms of content and speed when it comes to the future relationship between the EU and the UK’.
Speaking afterwards, Mrs May ruled out the prospect of delaying Brexit by extending Article 50, as Mr Varadkar urged her to do this week to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
‘I’m clear that I’m going to deliver Brexit. I’m going to deliver it on time,’ she said.
In a speech at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce last night, the Taoiseach said that while Ireland is ‘working to achieve the best solution, we are preparing ourselves for the worst’. He also confirmed that he has notified the European Commission of Ireland’s intention to seek emergency aid in the event of a no-deal Brexit.