Coveney says Ireland should not be ‘unhelpful’ on Brexit

Ireland needs to “sit tight and be patient” with events in London, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said in Dublin on Wednesday night, as the Government digested the news of Theresa May’s promise to quit as British prime minister.

Mr Coveney indicated that he expected that the UK would seek a longer extension to article 50 if the withdrawal agreement does not pass in the British parliament.

Asked what would happen if the next vote on the withdrawal agreement failed in the House of Commons - despite Mrs May’s pledge - Mr Coveney said: “I don’t think anyone’s clear, including the prime minister.

“So we have to sit tight and be patient here. And we need to make sure that comments coming from Ireland aren’t unhelpful to the process,” Mr Coveney said.

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“I think there’s a bit of patience needed to allow this extraordinary political process to continue to unfold as the British parliament and British government try to find a way of essentially coalescing around a deal...

“ If they can’t do that, then I think the parliament is faced with much tougher choices in terms of how they prevent a no-deal in the short term, by presumably looking for a much longer extension. But it’s too early to say how they would do that,” he said.

Mr Coveney was speaking at the British Irish Chamber of Commerce dinner in Dublin, which was also addressed by the chief executive of Ulster Bank, Jane Howard. The theme of the dinner was "Building relationships beyond Brexit. "

On Mrs May’s potential resignation if the agreement is passed, Mr Coveney said: “The Irish Government will deal with the British prime minister, whoever they are. The relationships between Britain and Ireland are much stronger than individual personalities.

“Our response has always been to focus on the deal,” he said. “We need a withdrawal agreement to be ratified so that the UK can leave the European Union in a way that’s managed, predictable and sensible.

“So the focus continues to be on the deal for us rather than on the personalities. Really it’s a matter for the prime minister to manage the internal politics of her own party and of course her own premiership.

Earlier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted Northern Ireland would have to be treated differently than the rest of the UK to avoid a hard border in the event of a to deal Brexit.

He told the Dáil:  “Let there be no doubt in this House or in Westminster that when I talk about special arrangements I mean treating Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK.

“It is the UK Government’s proposal to do exactly that. Not in four or five years’ time if the backstop ever has to be implemented but in a few weeks’ time in the event of a no-deal.”

But Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin launched a stinging attack on the Taoiseach’s is failure to share “basic information” about his discussions on a no deal with the EU council last week.

“Every country in Europe, except Ireland, has informed its people what will happen if there is no deal,” he said.

Mr Martin said a range of European media outlets said direct questions were put to the Taoiseach about Ireland’s policy towards a no deal scenario and what Ireland was prepared for.

“The fact that no such information appeared in the Irish media confirms that the Taoiseach and his staff decided not to brief on this,” he said.

Mr Varadkar had told the Dáil he could not reveal EU Council discussions. Mr Martin said this was the “first time in seven years that Ireland was a substantive topic of conversation at a Council and our Government has refused to detail the conversation”.

The Taoiseach made “extraordinary claims” that “there is nothing to share” and “there are no papers or documents” Mr Martin said.

“He has aggressively attacked anybody who has challenged him to be open with the Irish public about what is being planned.”

The Fianna Fáil leader claimed this is “his equivalent of the Trumpian habit of attacking any inconvenient question as ‘fake news’”.

When the suspension of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party from the European People’s Party (EPP) grouping because of his anti-immigration policies was raised Mr Varadkar, whose Fine Gael party is a member of the EPP, referred to anti-Semitism in the British Labour party.

He said the Party of European Socialists, which the Labour party is a member of, “must also consider the situation in Britain and the increasingly Eurosceptic-led Labour Party which has serious issues around anti-Semitism to the extent that Jewish MPs are resigning”.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the Taoiseach had been warning people to be very careful about their language on the ongoing discussions in Westminster "yet today he gratuitously had a go at the British Labour Party, the votes of which will be pivotal in deciding the outcome".

Mr Varadkar said however that many people “particularly Jewish people, have real and genuine concerns about anti-Semitism in that party” and those concerns should not be dismissed.