Has no t been in May in six weeks

Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Minister for Europe Helen McEntee held the Future of Europe Dialogue ahead of Europe Day.

The event was a culmination of citizens’ events across the State led by Ms McEntee on the topic of Europe.

In his address, Mr Coveney pointed to the internal threats facing the EU; and Ireland’s place within the EU, without Britain. He said Europe was “facing the rise of populism, and strident political voices – both from inside and outside”.

Notwithstanding Brexit, Mr Coveney (inset) said while a member state of the EU has decided to leave, “others are getting ready to join”.

He said part of the results from speaking to citizens was that Irish people are attached to our traditional policy of military “neutrality”, “on the one hand, and a recognition, on the other, that there are new, asymmetric threats that we cannot cope with alone”.

Co-operation under the EU military body PESCO (Permanent Structured Co-operation) would “make us safer in the face of asymmetric threats such as terrorism, extremism and cyber-attacks”, he said.

“Ireland will play its part, in a way that reflects the wishes of our citizens,” said Ms McEntee.

In the UK, confusion and paralysis continues to reign over the Border after Brexit.

Anti-Brexit campaigners have rubbished David Trimble’s suggestion that mobile phone technology and sat nav tracking could solve the Irish Border question as somewhere between “magical and economically dangerous”. The former first minister has thrown his weight behind the so-called ‘Max Fac’ option for resolving the Border problem that has dogged Brexit negotiations.

This ‘smart border’ proposal argues that technology such as mobile phone and GPS technology can track lorries carrying goods, together with the computer-based customs clearing.

These solutions have already been fully ruled out by Ireland and the EU.