NI protocol: Government wants ‘meat on the bone’ to progress talks, says Taoiseach

The Government wants to see “meat on the bone” from negotiations to resolve a deadlock over the Northern Ireland protocol between the European Union and Britain, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

Speaking after his first bilateral meeting with British prime minister Rishi Sunak in north-west England on Thursday, Mr Martin said the “mood music was improving” between UK and European Union negotiators.

Mr Martin said both he and Mr Sunak had agreed there “was a good window of opportunity” to resolve the deadlock over the protocol, which governs the post-Brexit trade arrangement on the island of Ireland.

“The British government, along with the European Union, is now very determined to engage and to work through this and to see if we can get an agreement,” he said.

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“We want to see meat on the bone, the mood music is improving, we now need to translate that into a resolution, an agreed negotiated resolution between the European Union and the United Kingdom,” he said.

Northern Ireland remains without a devolved Executive or Assembly because its formation is being blocked by the DUP. The unionist party is refusing to re-enter the powersharing institutions over its opposition to the current implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. There are no political representatives from Northern Ireland at the British Irish Council meeting because the North currently has no first or deputy first minister due to the ongoing crisis at Stormont.

Mr Martin said while he did not want to “understate” the scale of the challenge, he believed there was “a really strong determination” to find an agreement between the parties.

The fact elections in Northern Ireland had been postponed created an opportunity for talks to take place between the EU and the British government on the protocol, he said.

The meeting with Mr Sunak also discussed the war in Ukraine, as well as issues around energy supply. The pair were meeting ahead of a British-Irish Council summit taking place in north-west England.

The 38th summit meeting of the British-Irish Council is taking place on Thursday and Friday in Blackpool. The summit is being attended by the leaders of the British and Irish Government, as well as First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon and First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford.

Mr Sunak held separate meetings with Ms Sturgeon and Mr Drakeford, before sitting down with Mr Martin on Thursday evening.

The British prime minister said the council meeting was “particularly important as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement” next April.

Downing St and Government Buildings both issued statements after the meeting stressing their determination to work for a negotiated solution to the impasse over the protocol.

Mr Sunak’s spokesman said he “stressed that the UK’s strong preference is for a negotiated solution with the EU” but also that he “reiterated that any deal must solve the full range of issues caused by the protocol but hoped for flexibility and pragmatism.”

Mr Martin’s statement said that “People and businesses in Northern Ireland have been crystal clear that they want agreed solutions to the Protocol issues and now is the time to do so.”

There was no sign yet, however, of a fundamental change in the UK’s approach. Senior Irish officials says they remain sceptical that the UK is preparing to make the changes to its position that would clear the way for a deal on the protocol, though they hope to make progress in technical discussions between the EU and UK in the coming weeks.

The Sinn Fein president reiterated her parry’s call for “clarity” from the UK government regarding the next steps.

Mary Lou McDonald said the British prime minister’s presence at the meeting was “welcome” but “we need more than a change of mood music.

“We need clarity and certainty about how the British intend to use the next number of weeks to ensure we will start 2023 with the Assembly and Executive in place,” she said.