Coveney remains hopeful ‘partnership can work’ on Brexit

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said he thinks "there is still some time to try to ensure that negotiations and partnership can work" with the British government and resolve issues around the Northern Ireland protocol.

Mr Coveney said he had spoken this week to one of US president Joe Biden’s most senior advisers and also to members of Congress attending the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, including representative Brendan Boyle.

"The main focus is to try to encourage progress," in the discussions between EU commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic and UK Brexit minister David Frost. Mr Coveney said they are due to meet again directly on Friday.

The Minister will meet Mr Sefcovic on Tuesday for lunch and "hopefully we'll have an opportunity to have direct discussions with Lord Frost as well next week".

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He was speaking in the Dáil in reply to Fine Gael’s Brexit spokesman Neale Richmond who asked what efforts the Government is making to dissuade the British from triggering article 16. This mechanism allows either side to take unilateral action if they deem the agreement is having a strongly negative impact on their interests.

Britain stepped back from earlier threats to trigger article 16 following warnings that the move could precipitate a trade war with the European Union.

Frost to continue with talks

The Brexit minister on Wednesday told the House of Lords that article 16 would be Britain’s only option if talks with the EU failed. But he promised to continue negotiating for several weeks.

“Although we have been talking for nearly four weeks, there remain possibilities that the talks have not yet seriously examined . . . many approaches suggested by the UK. So there is more to do and I certainly will not give up on this process unless and until it is abundantly clear that nothing more can be done,” he said.

Mr Coveney said he had listened to what the Brexit minister had to say in the House of Lords on Wednesday.

“I think there is still some time to try to ensure that negotiations and partnership can work. And we will continue to focus on those efforts to do everything we can to dissuade the British government from triggering article 16 which I believe would be a really serious, negative and retrograde step.”