Any Brexit deal must keep the soft Irish border

All sides must be flexible and imaginative to ensure a smooth exit and preserve the hard-won peace

Today I visit Britain for the fourth time since I became Ireland’s foreign minister in June. I’ve already established good working relationships with UK colleagues and I’m looking forward to meetings with David Davis and Philip Hammond, as well as with members of the Opposition. My message to everyone will be this: with patience, hard work, imagination and determination, a deal between the UK and the EU on Brexit can be done. Not only that, it must be done.

I could reiterate Ireland’s deep regret that our friend and closest neighbour intends to leave the EU. I could also set out why Ireland is taking a different course, remaining at the EU’S heart and doing so with overwhelming public support. But I want to focus on the Brexit negotiations themselves.

Genuine progress has already been made on some fronts, including the rights of citizens and the maintenance of the long-standing Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain. Theresa May’s speech in Florence was a positive step forward and was recognised as such. The go-ahead has been given to start work within the EU27 on how we’ll negotiate the future UK-EU relationship and, of course, an important transition or implementation period.

Everyone must work to build further momentum. If we all do this, I’m hopeful the important “sufficient progress” test can be met when EU leaders meet again in mid-december. A no-deal, disorderly Brexit must be avoided – it would be a grave error, seriously affecting not just Britain but also Ireland and other countries.

Irish issues are among those on which progress must be made now. Ensuring that the achievements of the past 20 years of peace and cooperation are not reversed is a fundamental objective not just for Ireland but for the EU as a whole, and also, I fully acknowledge, for the British Government. Politically, economically, socially and symbolically, the fact that the North-south border is now invisible for all practical purposes is essential.

We share the same aims and principles. But we have yet to find the flexible and imaginative solutions which are needed.

There is a particular onus on the British Government here. Its commitment to avoiding physical border infrastructure is welcome. There is universal EU support for finding a way forward, but we need significantly more.

Every detail cannot be resolved at this stage, but I and my government need certainty from the UK that the final outcome will maintain the openness and invisibility that the 300-crossing, 300-mile border offers today and that such an outcome will respect Ireland’s position as an EU member state.

Brexit is unprecedented. Whatever one feels about it, its complexities are enormous and it poses greater challenges for Ireland than for any other EU members. It is creating some potential opportunities, but all our assessments are clear that the downsides will greatly outweigh any upsides. We trade more than twice as much with the rest of the EU than with the UK, but the Uk-ireland trade relationship amounts to more than €60billion a year and directly supports 200,000 jobs in Britain and another 200,000 jobs in Ireland. It also makes Ireland the UK’S fifthlargest trading partner in the world.

The Irish government is working towards clear goals. We are determined to help ensure an orderly, well-managed exit. We want to protect the great achievements in Irish-british relations in recent decades, as so memorably symbolised by the Queen’s State Visit to Ireland in 2011. We need to protect the peace in Northern Ireland as pursued by successive British and Irish governments and the prosperity to which North-south cooperation and an open border contributes so much. We want a continued positive role for the UK in partnership with the EU on foreign policy issues, especially at this time of great regional and global uncertainties.

And we will work for as close as possible an EU-UK relationship overall, not least in trading terms. In this, it is also not too late to change course. Should the UK decide to stay in the customs union and single market – and reap the benefits that this would bring in terms of continued access to free trade in the EU and around the world – this would be wholeheartedly welcomed by Ireland and, I am sure, many other EU partners.

Being totally honest, I wish Brexit wasn’t happening at all. But if it is to happen, everyone must do their level best to contain and limit its negative impacts. Let’s blank out all the noise in this debate and focus on the work at hand, making sensible decisions in good time, for the sake of all of us.