Taoiseach warns British on protocol as EU-UK relations plummet

The Taoiseach has warned the British government that taking unilateral action on the Northern Ireland protocol would destabilise the Belfast Agreement, as a war of words between the EU and London over the issue intensified.

In unusually blunt language, which officials said was in response to British threats to scrap parts of the post-Brexit arrangement, Micheál Martin said "unilateralism flies in the face" of the approach that delivered the peace process, which involved "both governments working hand in glove and together".

Mr Martin told an Oireachtas committee that some of what London was saying about the protocol was “not true”. He wrote to British prime minister Boris Johnson last night and is to discuss the growing crisis with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and chief Brexit negotiator Maros Sefcovic in the coming days.

Mr Johnson last night said the protocol, agreed by the EU and UK to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit, has become a “real problem” and must be “fixed” to ensure power-sharing can be restored at Stormont.

Northern Ireland protocol has become a ‘real problem’ and must be ‘fixed’ - Boris Johnson

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He said the institutions set up under the Belfast Agreement “aren’t functioning” and that political governance in Northern Ireland has “collapsed”.

“The people of Northern Ireland need leadership . . . And the reason they don’t have that is because there’s one community in Northern Ireland that won’t accept the way the protocol works at present – we’ve got to fix that,” he said.

Assembly members are to sit at Stormont today for the first time since last week’s election. However, there is uncertainty over whether the parliament will be able to function as the DUP has left it until this morning to decide if they will elect an Assembly speaker.

DUP backing

No business or ministerial appointments can proceed if a speaker is not nominated with cross-community support, for which DUP backing is vital. The party is adopting a “wait-and-see approach” over how the British government addresses unionist concerns about the protocol.

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill is positioned to become First Minster, the first time a nationalist will oversee the North’s government in 101 years.

After a telephone call with British foreign secretary Liz Truss regarding the protocol yesterday, Mr Sefcovic warned that the EU would “never work with blackmail”. Ms Truss said that if the EU did not show the “requisite flexibility” over the protocol, the UK would have “no choice” but to act alone.

Mr Sefcovic said the EU would not respond to threats from the UK and warned that Britain’s position towards the protocol left “a huge question mark” over Northern Ireland’s access to the EU single market.

During the call between the two, described as “tetchy” and “difficult,” Ms Truss told Mr Sefcovic that the protocol was “the greatest obstacle” to restoring power-sharing at Stormont. A British foreign office spokesman said Ms Truss told Mr Sefcovic that the situation in Northern Ireland was “a matter of internal peace and stability” for the UK.

Mr Sefcovic said it remained “of serious concern” that the UK government intended to embark “on a path of unilateral action”. He ruled out any renegotiation of the protocol.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said the British government had decided “to ratchet tension up” and “make demands that they now that the EU cannot respond positively on”. The Minister is in Madrid today and will then travel on to Brussels for discussions with EU foreign ministers.