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Coveney quoted in The Guardian:
MPs who are planning to vote against Theresa May’s deal need to stop their “wishful thinking” that the EU will re-open Brexit negotiations, the Irish deputy prime minister has said in a hard-hitting speech in Dublin.
“These are fateful days and weeks in British politics. I remain convinced that there is a majority in the UK parliament which will do all it can to avert a disastrous crash-out Brexit,” Simon Coveney said in the first major intervention by the Irish government after the withdrawal agreement was signed in November.
“The time for wishful thinking is over. There is no alternative 585-page agreement waiting to be dusted off,” he said. “And it is also wishful thinking to ignore the default outcome if nothing else is agreed – that default is a crash-out.”
He warned it was time for MPs to be realistic and to stop holding on to the notion, expressed by the former Brexit secretary David Davis on the BBC on Tuesday morning, that the EU was playing negotiating games.
“Surely now is the time in Westminster for everyone, in government and in opposition, to cast aside unrealistic options based on promises that simply cannot be delivered,” Coveney said in front of a gathering of Ireland’s international diplomatic corps, alongside the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, in Dublin.
In an indirect appeal to the 100 or so MPs who are expected to vote against May’s deal next week, he said reality needed to take hold in Westminster.
“If that doesn’t happen quickly, in the absence of that realism, it is the hardliners who think no price is too high to pay for their version of Brexit who will win out to everyone’s cost, including Ireland’s.”
His remarks come after the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said the EU did not want to “trap” Britain and was working hard on written assurances to help May get the withdrawal agreement ratified in Westminster next week.
Coveney also appealed to the DUP and Sinn Féin to get Northern Ireland’s devolved government back up and running quickly.
“With a UK decision to leave the EU about to cause unprecedented dislocation – there is simply no excuse for the parties in Northern Ireland not to find a way to work together.”
Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that fresh written assurances from the EU to address his concerns over the Irish border element of the deal would not be enough as they would not be “legally binding”.
The assurances are expected to include a pledge that a trade deal could be signed off by 2021, thereby obviating the need for a backstop if the transition period was extended for one year.
Davis expressed confidence that the EU would make a U-turn, was merely “testing the mettle” of the UK and predicted the EU would re-open negotiations.
Coveney said on Tuesday morning this was impossible. “The European council provided reassurances about the backstop in December and we are ready to provide additional clarifications if these are helpful,” he said
“However, we cannot reopen the withdrawal agreement text itself, which was the product of multiple compromises and highly detailed negotiations in a very wide range of areas.”
Varadkar said EU leaders did not wish to trap Britain in the backstop indefinitely and had already made that clear.
The remarks from the Irish leader and his deputy came as German’s foreign minister flew to Dublin for the fourth round of talks between Ireland and Germany since Thursday as part of a continuing bid to find a fix that will help May get her deal ratified in parliament.
Maas will also address Ireland’s diplomatic corps on Tuesday on his second visit to the Irish capital in a year.
Last week, Varadkar, who speaks German, had a 40-minute call with Angela Merkel and also visited Munich to address her coalition partners, the CSU. On Friday, he met the German chancellor’s successor as CDU leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, for discussions on Brexit and the future of Europe.
However; Coveney has just said that if the British Government asks for extension to Article 50; Ireland would not "Stand in it's way"
MPs who are planning to vote against Theresa May’s deal need to stop their “wishful thinking” that the EU will re-open Brexit negotiations, the Irish deputy prime minister has said in a hard-hitting speech in Dublin.
“These are fateful days and weeks in British politics. I remain convinced that there is a majority in the UK parliament which will do all it can to avert a disastrous crash-out Brexit,” Simon Coveney said in the first major intervention by the Irish government after the withdrawal agreement was signed in November.
“The time for wishful thinking is over. There is no alternative 585-page agreement waiting to be dusted off,” he said. “And it is also wishful thinking to ignore the default outcome if nothing else is agreed – that default is a crash-out.”
He warned it was time for MPs to be realistic and to stop holding on to the notion, expressed by the former Brexit secretary David Davis on the BBC on Tuesday morning, that the EU was playing negotiating games.
“Surely now is the time in Westminster for everyone, in government and in opposition, to cast aside unrealistic options based on promises that simply cannot be delivered,” Coveney said in front of a gathering of Ireland’s international diplomatic corps, alongside the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, in Dublin.
In an indirect appeal to the 100 or so MPs who are expected to vote against May’s deal next week, he said reality needed to take hold in Westminster.
“If that doesn’t happen quickly, in the absence of that realism, it is the hardliners who think no price is too high to pay for their version of Brexit who will win out to everyone’s cost, including Ireland’s.”
His remarks come after the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said the EU did not want to “trap” Britain and was working hard on written assurances to help May get the withdrawal agreement ratified in Westminster next week.
Coveney also appealed to the DUP and Sinn Féin to get Northern Ireland’s devolved government back up and running quickly.
“With a UK decision to leave the EU about to cause unprecedented dislocation – there is simply no excuse for the parties in Northern Ireland not to find a way to work together.”
Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that fresh written assurances from the EU to address his concerns over the Irish border element of the deal would not be enough as they would not be “legally binding”.
The assurances are expected to include a pledge that a trade deal could be signed off by 2021, thereby obviating the need for a backstop if the transition period was extended for one year.
Davis expressed confidence that the EU would make a U-turn, was merely “testing the mettle” of the UK and predicted the EU would re-open negotiations.
Coveney said on Tuesday morning this was impossible. “The European council provided reassurances about the backstop in December and we are ready to provide additional clarifications if these are helpful,” he said
“However, we cannot reopen the withdrawal agreement text itself, which was the product of multiple compromises and highly detailed negotiations in a very wide range of areas.”
Varadkar said EU leaders did not wish to trap Britain in the backstop indefinitely and had already made that clear.
The remarks from the Irish leader and his deputy came as German’s foreign minister flew to Dublin for the fourth round of talks between Ireland and Germany since Thursday as part of a continuing bid to find a fix that will help May get her deal ratified in parliament.
Maas will also address Ireland’s diplomatic corps on Tuesday on his second visit to the Irish capital in a year.
Last week, Varadkar, who speaks German, had a 40-minute call with Angela Merkel and also visited Munich to address her coalition partners, the CSU. On Friday, he met the German chancellor’s successor as CDU leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, for discussions on Brexit and the future of Europe.
However; Coveney has just said that if the British Government asks for extension to Article 50; Ireland would not "Stand in it's way"
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Irish government getting jittery. They realise that they have overplayed their hand, have been used as a pawn by the EU and are now at severe risk of their own economy crashing after Brexit. Tough.
The whole article is loaded with anti-Brexit rhetoric and is a blatant propaganda attempt by a foreign government to influence the parliamentary vote. |
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It's the 1930s all over again. How did ireland do then?
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Foinavon; a stellar post
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How did Ireland do then asks moisoks, well I'll tell you how she did , she allowed hundreds of thousands of her children fight for a Country that had enslaved her people for Centuries . Thousands like my Grandfather, my Father his brothers while many a ENGLISHMAN ran away from the war or stayed at home PLAYING at been at war...Thousands of her Children died fighting to save Englands liberty, that's what Ireland did!
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https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/ireland-and-the-nazis-a-troubled-history-1.3076579
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https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/ireland-and-the-nazis-a-troubled-history-1.3076579
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for some reason my reply won't go through
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How did they do in the 1930s ? they refused to fight in WW2 alongside Britain as it stood in danger against the evil nazi regime ,
After they act if treachery no one from Ireland should have ever allowed to live in Britain again |
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We see they are up to their old ways , don’t trust them
They don’t deserve to be trusted |
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that took ages to get through - is it the topic - sensitive???
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My Grandfather fought in India for England while Englishmen ran around London sunning themselves the Cowardly Bastards, my Father and his brothers left a lovely home to go fight for your Country one of his brothers spent 3 year in a POW camp , England owes my family big time, but we ask and receive nothing , we were happy to help...
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Foinavon,easy to point "blame" at Ireland,you have to remember it was your finest "brains" that thought it was a good deal last September.It was most pityful negotiating ever in your history,how Europe laughed at ye and bit your hand off for it.
No fan of leo but your country is absolutely pathetic up to this point,personnally didn't want to see it on the original reason of the UK wanting to leave but the blame is with yourselves. |
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Mosley springs to mind moaisk, kettle and black..
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The next time someone from Ireland pipes up they should be told that’s fine
You no longer have the right to live and work in Britain , very good There’s plenty of work in Germany and France and Poland , Cheerio |
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Foinavon on the money as per usual.
Workrider - she allowed hundreds of thousands of her children fight - estimates suggest just under 70,000 from the ROI joined the fight against the Nazis. Returning home after the war they were treated with contempt and shunned. |
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clowns like workrider will have us all believing that it was ireland that fought and won WW2
Yes I’m sure they were spitfires flying over England , thanks |
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Britain 2016 "we are heading towards sunny uplands and unicorns"
Britain 2019 " boo hoo,the paddies are bullying us" |
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Nothing much changes with the Irish , don’t be fooled they are full of hatred for Britain that’s clear
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the progressives are full of insults as usual
I thought Ireland was neutral with dodgy undertones but who can go against the word of someone who re-writes history |
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Not really,the only "hatred" is by the norths and scottish orange people,now that is hate.
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Is the so? and who were planting the bombs and carrying out the murders ?
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What a wonderful example so Akabula, 70,000 from a population of some 3,500,000 fighting men came, Volunteers not conscript's , came of their own choosing while the Country they left behind was still been divided up among a bunch of Scottish land grabbers . They stood shoulder to shoulder and died side by side with those who despised them most, what brave men they were...
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what on earth is he rambling on about
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We are talking about Ireland and the majority of Irish who were quite happy to see Britain stand alone against the most evil and dangerous regime
And then they gave the gaul to talk about freedom , silly ***** |
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Ireland was neutral was it not. Lots of connections with nazi germany too.
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Loyalist terror squads?
Anyway, i posted on the thread as using Ireland as a scapegoat for the state of affairs you are in now is very lame. |
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The most important battle for freedom in history and those fools choose not to help
They can pipe down about freedom for at least a thousand years |
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Yes they were brave men as were all that took part in the war workrider .
But it doesn't change what I posted. |
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I'd say people like yourself and many like ye would be hard pressed to show such dedication as my Family did, in fact I doubt many BRITISH families sent as many of theirs to war as mine...Did YOUR family offer such service to King and Country or were they sitting out the war in some nice little seaside town till it was all over like so many BRITISH did...
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The facts are the Americans and Russians won the war.
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There we go , that’s the scummy attitude to Britain from the Irish like pa lapsy right there
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End of rant , ye are not worth it anyway...
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It is the truth
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ha ha -ye attempt to re write history - Ireland was neutral - hope this helps
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%age wise more in the ROI sat out than did in the UK and NI.
Anyway that wasn't the point of my posts, maybe you could address them. |
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That’s fine , there seems to be no reason why they should be allowed the freedoms to live and work in Britain now is there ?
Why not clear off, that’s fine |
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I don't dispute that the so called negotiations have been badly handled on the UK side pa lapsy, I also think they have been cynically handled by the civil servants appointed by the Remainer PM over the heads David Davies and his department. It doesn't change the role still being played by the Irish Government over the border issue.
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My son is convinced that TM is playing us like a fiddle.
Can't get my head around her thinking this deal would be acceptable but maybe she knew that. Who knows what her end game is. |
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I agree Foinavon,you had imo a great option of insisting on a hard border due to the poor deal and despite the GFA during the negotiations, a bluff maybe but it would have given leverage in said negotiations at the time.
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