'Border infrastructures' needed in a no-deal Brexit, Simon Coveney insists
Tánaiste Simon Coveney has warned that the UK's "fanciful" Brexit proposals will not work and "border infrastructures" will be required in a no-deal scenario.
In an impassioned working breakfast speech in New York, Mr Coveney accused Boris Johnson of removing the Brexit solution and creating a "much bigger problem to solve" in relation to the Irish border.
He vented frustration that Ireland is now spending "hundreds of millions of euro of Irish taxpayer's money" to prepare for a no-deal Brexit but added that it would be "nonsense" to claim a deal is not possible.
On the issue of checks in the case of a no-deal, Mr Coveney said: "If you have two single markets next door to each other, operating to different rules, you have to have border infrastructures, otherwise you fundamentally undermine the functioning and integrity of both those markets because you don’t know what’s coming and going, and where it’s come from.
"Effectively what has happened with a change of government in the UK, well, a change of Prime Minister, is that they have removed the solution, or they’re asking to remove the solution to the Irish border question and they’re creating a much bigger problem to solve in the context of the Irish question by saying: 'We want rid of the backstop, and, oh, by the way, we want to fundamentally diverge from EU rules and regulations and a level playing field'."
Mr Coveney said the onus is now on Mr Johnson to solve the question of the Irish backstop.
There has been a lot of fanciful discussion and proposals coming forward around alternative arrangements on the basis of technology cameras, trusted trader schemes. But to be honest with you, when you test these answers they're essentially borders away from the border.
He added that it "doesn't really bother the Irish people" if the backstop is accepted or if it is achieved through another means that has the same result as the backstop.
"Our position is we need a solution to this question. If we don't (get one) what we are doing is we are transferring the problem that at the moment doesn't seem to be solvable in Westminster, to Ireland. And we become the collateral damage in Brexit in the context of the Irish border question dominating Irish politics for the foreseeable future taking us in a very uncertain direction politically North and South," he said.
