All eyes on May today as she must come up with solutions on the Border

DUBLIN and Brussels are bracing themselves ahead of a major speech on Brexit by Theresa May this afternoon. The British prime minister is to outline her country’s plans for its postBrexit relationship with the EU.

It comes as the commitment she made last December to avoid a hard Border in Ireland appeared to fall apart this week.

Former Fine Gael minister – now European Commissioner for Agriculture – Phil Hogan weighed in on the debate, saying the revived impasse on talks was “very frustrating.”

“Rather than red lines, we need clear lines,” he said of the fact that the British government has listed only those areas in which it will not participate with the EU.

But Mrs May’s speech this afternoon will be the first time that she has come forward with positive ideas as to how she sees Brexit working in a way that will satisfy Brexiteers, as well as the UK’s obligation to protect peace in the North.

Mrs May rejected the EU’s draft text subsequent to the deal that had been negotiated in December, saying: “No UK prime minister could ever agree to it.”

The agreement said that in the event of no better solutions Northern Ireland and the Republic would abide by the same rules and regulations on goods crossing the Border.

This would negate the need for a hard Border, as it would prevent goods of differing standards to those of the EU coming into the Republic and therefore into the EU.

Effectively, it would keep Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs union – which the DUP and others say would compromise the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom.

Part of the solution would be to keep the whole of the UK in the customs union – which is now the official policy of Britain’s Labour Party, as recently announced by its leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

This proposal piles more political pressure on Mrs May, as it will undoubtedly gain support from the anti-Brexit Tory MPs.

Speaking on Seán O’Rourke’s show on RTÉ, Mr Hogan said the UK’s Labour Party had seen the light in regard to the customs union.