10 May 2019

The Guardian: Backstop still needed if May departs, Irish foreign minister says

Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, has told the Conservative party that getting rid of Theresa May will not remove the need for a Brexit backstop for the Northern Ireland border.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he pointed out that a no-deal Brexit, which some of May’s potential successors have been considering, would require checks on goods travelling across the border.

This reality would not change whoever the Conservatives chose as their new leader, Coveney said, and he urged the party to back May’s withdrawal bill.

He said: “Without a [withdrawal] deal, then we essentially have Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, in a different customs union and a different single market, to the Republic of Ireland, which will be part of the EU customs union and single market. And if goods travel from one customs area to another, from one single market to another, there will need to be checks somewhere.”

Asked what would happen if May’s successor was determined to scrap the backstop arrangement in the withdrawal agreement, Coveney said: “These realities don’t change. This is not a personality-based issue. It is an evidence-based issue. Within the current withdrawal agreement that’s available … there are the flexibilities there to look at alternative arrangements to the backstop if they work. If they stand up, they can replace the backstop.

“But we have to move forward on the basis of knowing that we are not going to see the kind of damage done on the island of Ireland, that the imposition of a border would result in.”

Coveney also signalled his determination to see power sharing restored to Northern Ireland within weeks and said the killing of the journalist Lyra McKee was a warning of what could happen in a political vacuum. [...]

Full article on The Guardian

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