Colette Browne: Leo has rewarded British indifference to peace

THE Government is in danger of turning into the boy who cried wolf, as its demands that the UK make substantial progress on its post-Brexit plans for the Irish Border prove mere empty threats.

Yesterday, it was quietly confirmed the Government is abandoning its earlier insistence that the UK would have to make “substantial progress” on the Border “backstop” deal by the end of June if withdrawal talks with the EU were to continue.

This is despite the fact that both the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach issued very stark threats to the UK that negotiations would stall if it was unable to at least give some indication of what we can expect a post-Brexit Border to look like by the end of June, when yet another EU summit is scheduled.

Speaking in May, Simon Coveney was adamant it was “really important to have substantial progress by the end of June because I think people will find it difficult to accept that there is credibility in a process that is hoping to conclude by the end of October if some of the more difficult issues in those negotiations aren’t at least taking shape by the end of June”.

At the end of April, Leo Varadkar was also wagging his finger at his British counterparts, stating it was “essential that we see real and solid progress by June if negotiations are to move forward”.

Well, it’s now June and there has been zero progress – unless the Irish Government believes that the latest in a long line of cock-ups, absurd proposals and increasingly bitter recriminations among Theresa May’s cabinet members amounts to “substantial progress”.

While the British government lurches from controversy to crisis, there is a real risk now that its inability to propose anything even vaguely resembling a rational Brexit plan will have seriously negative consequences for this country.

With our Government having bizarrely accepted that no progress, substantial or otherwise, is going to be made on the Irish issue by the end of this month, the British will be tasked with having to try to cobble together their entire strategy by the end of October – in just four months.

Given the chaos that has characterised the process in Westminster to date, you don’t have to be a storied diplomat to come to the conclusion that the likelihood of meeting this deadline is virtually nil.

So, why does our Government intend to roll over and allow the British government to continue spouting its fanciful nonsense about technological solutions – that haven’t been invented yet – as a solution for the Irish backstop?

At what point is our Government going to tell the British that the emperor has no clothes?

It’s not as if the Irish Government hasn’t indulged the British before. In December, when Mrs May wanted to move on to phase two of the negotiations, she was only able to do so with the permission of the Irish after a “backstop” deal was promised.

Again, in March, the British were only allowed to remain at the negotiating table after the Irish acquiesced – despite an assurance that flesh would be put on the bones of the backstop agreement by that date – being flouted.

Today, some three months later, not only have we yet to see the flesh of the British proposals, the skeleton is missing in action.

Absent the arrival of some forensic anthropologists into the mix, it’s now clear there’s no imminent hope of the bones of a plan ever being dug up.

While it’s all well and good for other EU member states to continually tell us that they have our back if the UK crashes out of the EU without a plan in place, it won’t be citizens in Paris or Berlin who bear the brunt – but the citizens of this country.

Which is why the Government’s softening tone is difficult to understand. As it stands, the UK now has to try to solve the vexed Irish question – as well as every other myriad issue in relation to trade – in just a few short months.

And it’s clear that members of Mrs May’s government are entirely focused on trade and utterly ambivalent about the Border.

We know this because Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson explicitly said so in comments made at a private dinner last week that were leaked to the press.

According to him, the 500km Border is “so small and there are so few firms that actually use that Border regularly” that “it’s beyond belief that we’re allowing the tail to wag the dog in this way”.

This level of delusion and risible analysis being openly expressed by a senior Tory cabinet member, at this late stage in the Brexit process, should send chills of terror down the spines of ministers in Dublin.

Instead, Irish politicians intend to reward the British with a free pass, facilitating their continued negotiations about trade arrangements when it’s abundantly clear that there is no plan, and even less interest in creating one when it comes to the Border.

PERHAPS if the British thought there was a real risk of trade talks coming to a shuddering halt, unless they do actual work on credible proposals, there would be some kind of progress.

Presumably, that’s why Mr Coveney and Mr Varadkar both engaged in fighting talk previously, warning the British position would lack all credibility unless there was a serious proposal in place by the end of the June.

However, instead of sticking to their guns, and showing the British there are consequences for inaction, they have backed down – rewarding Theresa May and her cabinet of incompetents for their boorishness, ignorance and ineptitude.

Perhaps if the British thought there was a real risk of talks shuddering to a halt, there would be some kind of progress