Brexit: Wary stalemate looms as Dublin, Brussels rebuff May over backstop

Good morning.

Apologies, but there's no getting away from it. Brexit dominates the news again today, and it will do for the foreseeable future.

Yesterday Dublin and Brussels gave their considered responses to the votes in the House of Commons late on Tuesday evening and the associated declarations by Prime Minister Theresa May that she would now renegotiate the withdrawal agreement and the backstop. They were not, to put it mildly, favourable.

Juncker, Tusk and Barnier: all negative. Varadkar and Coveney: even more negative. The withdrawal treaty and the backstop, they said, were settled and not up for negotiation. If Mrs May has proposals to avoid a hard border, she should make them. She did not; she is, instead, consulting at Westminster.

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Normandy political, business leaders discuss post-Brexit plans in Dublin

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Last night, Mrs May did some consulting with the Taoiseach over the telephone. We can assume the bonhomie was not infectious, the banter not sparkling. Their relations are frosty – and not becoming more cordial. Dublin issued a brief statement, repeating the Taoiseach’s position: the withdrawal agreement is not open. Mrs May essayed nothing new. Later, the Taoiseach told the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting he had told Mrs May it was unusual to go back on an agreement she made in such a fashion.

A period of wary stalemate is now in prospect as the British prime minister decides her next move, and how and when to make it.

Meanwhile, as our lead story reports today, the European Commission will be in town next week to discuss no-deal preparations. One way or another, the protection of the single market will be on the agenda. This translates as: if not a border, then what? It is not clear what answers the Irish Government has to that question.

Nor to the question that it may soon have to ask itself: do we risk a no-deal or do we consider a concession on the backstop?

Fiach Kelly and Cliff Taylor explore the "Malthouse compromise", while Denis Staunton reports EU irritation with London is bordering on anger.

All our Brexit coverage is available here, including Simon Carswell's guide of the backstop and our Brexit borderlands feature. And our podcast discussed the issue yesterday.

Nurses and Government wage battle of wills

Elsewhere, the nurses’ strike is at the centre of political attention. After the first day of the action yesterday - and with another scheduled for next Tuesday - attention will turn to efforts to find a resolution, with contacts expected in the coming days.

The unions will turn up the temperature when psychiatric nurses put in place an overtime ban today. Our off-lead on the strike is here.

Any resolution looks a long way off at this point, as the two sides remain very far apart. The Government insists it cannot do a special pay increase for nurses as it will explode the public sector pay agreement. The nurses, buoyed by public support, believe the Government will have to crack.

But the Government has political as well as fiscal reasons for hanging tough - caving into the nurses would torpedo its plans to fight the next election on a platform of economic competence and the promise of tax cuts. Some analysis of the Government's position is here.

And yet no Government can hold out indefinitely against overwhelming public opinion, which seems behind the nurses.

But whether the public remains behind the nurses as patients bear the cost remains to be seen.

Even more so than most industrial disputes, this one is a battle of wills, fought in the terrain of public opinion. For now, both sides look well dug in.

Best reads

Miriam has the latest on the Healy-Raes' struggle with one of the great menaces of the age - Shane Ross.

Stephen Collins counsels a cool head in stressful times.

It's past time the Government grasped the nettle on higher-education funding, our leader says.

Ronan McGreevy has a piece about the digitisation of the Dublin Apocalypse. This is not about Brexit, but rather a medieval manuscript about a less serious event - the imaged end of the world, as foretold in the last book of the Bible.

In the New Statesman, Jonathon Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff and one of the architects of the peace process , has a piece about how Britain's political class has failed it.

Playbook

Department of Business orals, Leaders’ Questions and the weekly votes dominate the early part of the day, while later debate continues on that rare thing - a joint Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil Bill, this time from Noel Rock and Stephen Donnelly, on banning ticket touting. Apparently tickets for the Ireland-England game on Saturday are fetching three grand a pop; the Digest remains ticketless, alas. If you have a spare . . .

The Seanad returns, once again, to the Judicial Appointments Bill.

At the committees, the Public Accounts Committee will examine the financial statements of the national paediatric hospital, while representatives from Ictu will discuss bogus self employment with the social protection committee. Full details on Oireachtas.ie.

Also some people might say some things about Brexit. We'll bring it all to you on irishtimes.com.

As many of you will be aware, today is the feast day of St John Bosco, after whom the popular children's entertainer is named. He is especially venerated in The Irish Times (the saint, not the puppet) as he is the patron saint of editors and publishers – though also of magicians and juvenile delinquents. Make of that what you will. But do have an utterly, Brexity, fruity day.