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FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER Simon Coveney has responded to questions around whether he felt guilty over the country’s stance on Brexit, by saying that assurances were needed from the British government before negotiations could continue.
Coveney was speaking to Sky News presenter Adam Boulton after a deal was struck between the UK and the EU this morning.
The deal saw British Prime Minister Theresa May guarantee that there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland following Brexit.
The deal follows weeks of tense negotiations between all sides, with the UK wanting to move onto other issues, but Ireland and the EU insisting that this matter be addressed first.
Commenting on the deal, Sky News’ Adam Boulton asked Coveney if all the back and forth had been necessary, and if he felt at all guilty over what had happened.
He also referenced a deal that was almost reached around the issue on Monday, only for it to be scuppered when the UK withdrew its support after it became apparent that the Northern Irish DUP would not back it.
“Do you think that this week’s kerfuffle has been necessary? Do you feel slightly guilty that perhaps the Irish government over-briefed what had been achieved as a victory over the British for the European Union?” Boulton asked Coveney.
That [then] provoked the DUP and if you had been a bit more straightforward about a practical agreement at the beginning we wouldn’t have had these four days of turmoil.
Coveney responded that that may have been the briefing on the British side, but that the Irish position had been clear.
“I mean we never looked for or claimed any victory over anybody,” Coveney said.
“We have been saying for many months now that we want to work with the British government to try to find a way forward that can reassure people in Ireland as well as in the UK that we can manage Brexit and we can limit damage in the way that’s now in this agreement,” he said.
Coveney said that had always been the Irish government’s position.
“Yes of course there’s been some friction because many people have been saying, ‘look we don’t need and don’t want to give those assurances right now, we’ll deal with these issues in phase two’.
“The Irish government’s response has always been that for us that’s like a jump into the dark.
We don’t know where we’re going to land, we don’t know whether we’re going to have unintended consequences and we need basic reassurance that actually certain things will not happen under any circumstances when we move onto phase two.
He went on to list the various assurances that were needed: among them that there will be no return to a hard border on the island; that the Good Friday Agreement will be protected; and that the Common Travel Area between the two nations will be upheld.
He said those assurances had not been given.
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Getting worse at alarming rate :(
@Willy Malone: Expect that to continue Willy, possibly accelerate.
Billions to bail out their banking friends. A paltry few million to deal with the housing and homelessness crisis, official Ireland fails our people again.
Please more affordable homes, not more social housing. The squeezed middle earn too much for a corpo house and not enough for the bank to give a mortgage. I’m sick listening to the left parties constantly moaning about getting more social housing, no one speaking for those who work hard, pay tax and claim nothing and can’t buy a home
@Blah blah: the problem is that the politicians want a fast and easy solution. Big developers aren’t going to deliver. If many small builders were helped to build a few houses in patches of redeveloped land it would have a greater impact.
So they spent a large portion of the low cost housing budget getting infrastructure in for their developer mates to make a killing. Low cost housing and developers don’t mix as it means low profits.
Just build social housing and get on with it. Stop with the neoliberal agenda of always making the rich richer.
This is just all down to bad politics. There’s always been people in society who earn so little they can’t afford to rent or buy a house and in the past, the gov built council houses to accommodate them. Present govs are refusing to do this, then compounding the problem by increasing taxes on people who could afford to rent or buy, pushing them out of the market. Add to this, gov refusing to let developers build high density in city centers. Add to this the gov increasing taxes on developers to the point of not making it profitable for the developer to build. But coveney and his ilk who offer no credible solution will no doubt be out asking for your vote again in the next election.
@Adrian: the government are going into overdrive building council housing at the moment! Beside me they were original due to build 25 houses for council housing in a derelict land, now they are squeezing in 74 units, all council housing, creating a ghetto. No one house going to the private market, those people will just be driven further out the commuter belt
Well if you get 20,000 homes at €400,000 it means 20,000 rental units are not needed by those occupiers. Surely this is a positive thing.
@KerryBlueMike: What average earners say on 35k could afford 400k?
@Joe Keogh: average earners are 45k in Ireland. Why settle for being average though? There’s plenty of work for those that want it.
@alphanautica: 23% of the population are in jobs earning no more than 20,000 a year. What hope do they have of ever owning their own home, or paying the exorbitant rents around the country.
@KerryBlueMike:
Your figures are completely squeyeways. Developers will never do this.
@alphanautica:
You must live in Royal Dublin.
@alphanautica: @alphanautica and what about those that can’t work…the disabled, the old the carers. Should they just look for a cardboard box on the side of the road? Or maybe it would be better in your world if they all just died and stopped being a drain on ‘society’. Your constant whine that they are creator’s of their own situations is disgusting.
Rubbish. There’s no housing crisis. Hundreds of migrants from all over the world come here and they are all found accommodation,no problem.
have your say