THE TÁNAISTE AND Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney expressed annoyance today at Britain’s continued failure to ratify a deal on its orderly withdrawal from the European Union.

“Of course there’s frustration,” Coveney told reporters after more talks in Brussels with EU colleagues.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May thinks she might be able to get a deal signed with EU leaders in November past the British parliament if it is reworded.

But EU leaders, as Coveney noted, insist this is a non-starter and that, in particular, a guarantee of no hard border between Ireland and the UK must stay.

“My job is to try to protect Irish interests and the Irish people through Brexit which is not an Irish policy,” he said after the ministerial meeting.

“We are spending hundreds of millions of euro in Ireland preparing for a no-deal Brexit to try to protect Irish citizens,” he added.

“We don’t want to have to do that. Of course we want a solution here. And yes, there’s frustration,” he said.

“We have less than 40 days to go until the United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union and we still don’t know what the British government is actually asking for to actually get this deal ratified.”

Earlier, Coveney had met chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier for an update on the talks.

Later, Barnier was due to meet Britain’s latest minister for Brexit, Stephen Barclay, who is preparing the ground for May to return to Brussels later this week.

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt had insisted on arriving at the meeting that Britain’s support for the Northern Ireland peace deal was “unconditional”.

Both London and Brussels would have to show flexibility to find a reworked Brexit deal that could get past the House of Commons, he said.

“But what we need is trust and vision on both sides, because what’s at stake here is Britain’s relationship with its European neighbours for the next 25 years.”

- © AFP 2019