Shockwaves has hit Ireland on Wednesday afternoon as Leo Varadkar the Irish Taoist is to hold emergency Brexit talks after the Queen approved Johnson’s proroguing of parliament.
Irish politicians in Dublin have demanded an early return to the Dail, to hold a series of crisis talks as politicians fear the Irish backstop cannot be renegotiated.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney has warned there is no time available for further negotiations over the withdrawal agreement. He added that a no-deal Brexit will be blamed on MPs in Westminster.
The deputy prime minister said, “A no-deal would not be our choice, it will not be France’s choice and it will not be the EU’s choice it will be the choice of the UK government and the British parliament collectively if they choose to allow it or indeed to deliberately trigger it no amount political grandstanding or attempts to shift the blame can change this fact.
“As the European Council has consistently made clear the withdrawal agreement, including the now famous backstop, cannot simply be renegotiated. Even if we wanted to do that, which we don’t, we can’t do it in six or ten weeks.
“Prime Minister Johnson’s proposal to simply abolish the backstop in the absence of agreed alternative arrangements that we can believe will work is something that we cannot and will not support.
“Nobody has yet come up with credible arrangements or technical solutions for that matter which could replace those temporary arrangements in the withdrawal agreement and the backstop.”
Leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan said, “I am asking Leo Varadkar to use his powers under standing order 26 to initiate an early return of the Dail.
“We need to debate what is happening with Brexit and have full transparency in our response to the evolving crisis in Westminster.”
Speaking on the latest developments in Westminster, Coveney said, “My focus is on trying to find a way of getting a deal that’s consistent with the commitments the British government has made over the last two years to Ireland and the EU.
“The disruptive impact of Britain leaving the European Union has a huge impact on the island of Ireland and we have a shared responsibility with the British government to protect the peace process and to ensure the all-island economy continues to function.”
Adding, “Most importantly, we must ensure that the commitments that took two years to negotiate to deal with the complexity of those issues on the island of Ireland are actually followed through on.
“Unfortunately, what we are hearing today from the British minister for Brexit is that Britain no longer seems to be committed to that approach, which we know solves the problem at hand and instead wants everyone to move forward and agree on the basis of a promise that we would try and deal with these issues at some point in the future.
“We can’t give up on something that we know works on the back of a promise without any idea as to how it’s going to work.”
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