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Updated 5.30pm
EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT Donald Tusk has said that if the UK’s Brexit offer is unacceptable to Ireland, it will be unacceptable to Europe.
The EU chief visited Dublin today for talks with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ahead of the EU summit, which he will chair, with the other 27 member States.
During a press conference this afternoon, Tusk said Ireland will be consulted on any offer put forward by the UK to deal with phase one issues – which include citizen’s rights, the Brexit bill and the border with Northern Ireland.
He said such news will be “hard” for some British politicians to understand, but he said Ireland’s interests are Europe’s interests.
“If the UK offer is unacceptable for Ireland, it will also be unacceptable to Europe,” said Tusk.
Varadkar thanked Tusk for his unwavering support and solidarity with Ireland.
Before the talks can progress to phase two trade talks the UK must make sufficient progress on the issues, including how it aims to avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland.
While Varadkar said there has been progress made on EU citizen rights and the financial settlement, questions still hang over the border issue.
“The best and most obvious solution” would be for the UK to remain in the Customs Union and the Single Market said the Taoiseach, but he acknowledged that this had been ruled out by Theresa May’s government.
Time is running out
He said the onus was now on them to offer “credible” and “workable” solutions to prevent a hard border.
“The period between now and the European Council meeting in two weeks time will be crucial. Indeed the next few days will be crucial. So we don’t have long,” said Varadkar.
He added that with the right engagement, and being an optimist by nature, a solution is achievable.
While he said he is willing to work intensively on the issue over the next few days, the Taoiseach is also willing to “stand firm” with Ireland’s European partners if the UK offer “falls short” on any of the three phase one issues.
Earlier today, the Tánasite and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said he wants to avoid the Brexit debate becoming an “orange versus green” issue in Northern Ireland.
Former DUP leader Peter Robinson has accused the Irish Government of acting provocatively in the negotiations and said the South should “wind its neck in”.
Yesterday, British media reported that the DUP threatened to withdraw from the confidence and supply arrangement that is propping up the British Government over the Irish border issue.
Just one day into the job as Tánaiste, Coveney confirmed that he has talked to the DUP about the issues.
However, he said the Brexit border talks are not a “green and orange” issue and have nothing to do with any clandestine attempt by the Republic to take back Northern Ireland.
“I have tried and I continue to try to avoid this debate becoming a green versus orange issue in Northern Ireland – it is very hard to prevent that given the language we have heard, but our approach here is to listen to everybody.
“No one party has a monopoly in Northern Ireland in the context of what is acceptable and what is not,” said Coveney.
The minister said the Irish government will work with all parties to find a practical way forward, adding that he wanted to give assurances to the unionist communities in the North.
Reassuring the unionists
“I can assure unionists that this is not some sort of tactic by the Irish government to progress some sort of constitutional change on the island of Ireland – quite the opposite.
“In fact what we want is to protect the status quo in terms of improving relations with unionists and nationalist communities both in Northern Ireland and on border communities, north and south, that is what we are interested in and nothing else,” said Coveney, adding:
I am not going to get drawn into responding to comments by the DUP. We will listen to what everyone has to say in Northern Ireland regardless of where they come from, regardless of their community or their political party. The decisions we are trying to ensure are taken in terms of Brexit need to be in the interest of everybody on the island of Ireland.
The Tánaiste said a Brexit deal on the Irish border question is “doable” but he said before that is possible there must be more movement and flexibility than has been seen to date.
However he acknowledged that he believes “we can get to where we need to be in the next few days”.
The Irish government’s position on Brexit is “stern and stubborn” but is fair, said Coveney, but he said he can not allow Brexit to drive communities apart.
Coveney said the question of whether Ireland will use its veto to prevent the talks progressing to the next phase misses the point – stating that all the EU27 are behind Ireland’s position.
“There is not an anti-British bone in my body – Britain is a great country and we want a good deal. A good deal for Britain is a good deal for us, but Ireland will not be steamrolled in this issue,” he said.
On the border issue, Coveney said it is part of phase one and the UK has put nothing on the table in terms of a customs union.
“I don’t mind what we call this, we can call it a customs union partnership, we can call it a grand trade partnership, whatever we want to call it – but the bottom line is if goods are going to have to move from one customs union to another then there will have to be customs checks somewhere, whether it is in a business premises or a borer, and we are trying to avoid that. I think we can avoid that in the context of the negotiations in phase two, I hope – but that is for a future date,” said Coveney.
Next election?
In terms of other issues that dominated the headlines this week, and whether the confidence and supply agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has been damaged, Coveney appears to believe it is stable.
Coveney said the confidence and supply arrangement is “robust” and he doesn’t agree that an election in the spring is inevitable.
The new Tánaiste went so far as to claim the agreement with Fianna Fáil can last until the next budget.
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Joan Burton the peoples champion .
Don’t make me laugh.
iPhone Joan has completely lost her marbles recently.
The likelihood of her losing her seat too, shortly , has driven her temperament to the house for the bewildered.
That and the courting session that has begun between Enda & Mehole , which only confirms , that everyone now knows , that The Labour Party will be virtually nonexistent, following after the soon to be announced General Election!!!
As two faced as you can get,nothing genuine about her
Lads, why is Gerry less popular than iPhone Moanie Joanie in the opinion polls? Doesn’t make sense,
Well Empress Maria Louisa is simply looking after her support base… sure all teachers are on the Spin Feign ten cent payroll… look at them all out off the leash today… woof woof
I’d say it’s rigged!
Keep digging there iphone, everytime you open your mouth its another nail in labours coffin.
The Government are not listening to the people, they never did. When questioned by the opposition they simply ignore the question and make some silly unrelated waffle.
We are under the power of a dictatorship pure and simple, They don’t care about you or me or if your kids or mine are hungry or cold they have quangos to re fair you to for answers to those issues. They imposed a home tax and a water tax against the will of the people, Fine Gael and Labor never again Rotten shower of get rich quick opportunists.
I feel embarrassed for the people of Dublin West.
Goodbye Joan.
Let she who is without sin…..
do page 3.
Pic of Joan Burton clothed even would turn me off a newspaper for life
When the governments backs are against the wall, they seem to have only one plan: attack Sinn Féin.
Hundreds of people on trollers? Attack Sinn Féin.
Homeless people dying on our streets? Attack Sinn Féin.
Not representing the people who put them in power? Attack Sinn Féin.
The list of incompetence is endless.
*should read hundreds of people in trollies.
Not so smart iJoan burton must have requested a truthful comment about her to be deleted. What a pathetic inhumane individual. Delete away, doesn’t change the poor way she treats the people of Ireland.
As an erstwhile Labour voter – (I know, I know, but I am a working class person) – I come to bury JobBridge Joan, not to praise her. How this woman, who has connived in ,and indeed initiated, the most anti social and anti working class measures in this country since the 1920′s can criticize anyone, ANYONE, absolutely beggars belief. I hold no particular brief for Ms. McDonald, but this shameless bid to smear political opponents should not be allowed to pass unchallenged. Shame on you, you patronizing, multi pensioned baggage. LEAVE NOW, before you are dragged out of Leinster House and thrown in the gutter where you belong.
Oh, Pontius, that was a mere aside. Believe me, I have a whole lot more that I could say, but brevity being the soul…. and all that!
It is not just Joan. They all are doing it, especially when the marginalised party members speak (though it is difficult to think of SF as marginalised anymore, but in the Dail, they are). They attack the person. It is a strategy of FF/FG/Lab to attack people first and mmmmmmaybe, then, address the issue. It’s dysfunctional.
“Burton said she regularly visits both “well-off” schools and those in “poorer communities” through her job,”
Guess iJoan doesn’t visit schools in poorer communities as much as she use to, since she developed Globophobia.
If Joan Burton is saying Mary Luo is a saint then Joan must be a Satanist.
i like Mary Lou. She is a true Fianna Failer.
Bang on. What she is quoted as saying in the above article is pure mealy-mouthed blather.
I cant even stomach reading about Iphone Joan, never mind hearing her head melting voice. The sooner she is out of government the better,
CAN I JUST SAY bye bye joan! FOR THE PEOPLE
SF jumping on another bandwagon, I see.
There is zero mention of Junior Cert reform in SF’s manifesto from the last general election: http://www.sinnfein.ie/files/2011/SF_GeneralElectionManifesto2011.pdf
It seems a bit rich for a Labour TD to pass any remark on where people went to school…it seems to me that more than on of their own had a fee paying Education and at least one confirmed that was important by sending his children to fee paying schools?
St. Jude is Moanie Joan’s new Patron Saint.
Burton is a dipstick and will be political history soon enough
Labour getting their mojo back. About time.
Mojo? More like voodoo zombies.
Mojo?
Does that stand for Mad Old Joan?!
John, that was a goodie!! :-D
So they have at least 18 votes in 2016 then? Or are the green thumbers just being kind?
What a witch she is most hated person in the Country now her and Enda The people can not stand them any more
They has, has they?
Mary Lou is getting terrible crow’s feet and Joan looks like she’s melting. It’s time to get some attractive women in senior party positions. In the North, we have delights such as Arlene Foster, Naomi Long and Carál Ní Chúilín. Now they’re riding material.
It’s time to get casually sexist lads.. let’s all talk about women’s appearances and not mention once how the men look… except willie o’dea.. we have to mention him and his magnificent moustache. And doesn’t Micky Wallace’s beard look awful
I love a bit of casual sexism. Don’t be knocking it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2026450/One-teachers-bullied-online-parents-pupils.html
“Facebook and Twitter have been used to intimidate teachers over bad grades or simply because they are not liked.
More than a quarter of those that admit they have been targeted say the abuse has come from parents with one headteacher was driven to the brink of suicide by a year-long online hate campaign.
One parent even set up a ‘Google group’ and asked others to join in their abuse.”
Does the government not get it, when teachers mark their own students, then if the student gets a bad score who do you think their parents will take this out on, their child or the teacher?
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/mar/30/teachers-bullied-online
“More than one in seven teachers has been the victim of cyberbullying by pupils or parents, and almost half know a colleague who has been targeted, according to a survey published today.
Students have set up “hate” groups on social networking sites calling for specific teachers to be sacked and have even created fake profiles in their names containing defamatory information.”
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5066/more-than-a-third-of-teachers-bullied-and-threatened-by-parents
Over 40% of teachers threatened by parents and .3% of 14,000 teachers was physical abuse by parents. This is what self assessing will do as it has happened in England and bringing this in here will do the same.
Parents are going to bully the teachers here because when their child is upset due to a poor or poorer grade they blame the teacher but this government do not care and all that this does is make teachers stop teaching and is that what the government wants?
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2011/oct/03/bullying
“I am an ICT teacher and feel that I have to give students high marks or be labelled incompetent. There is nowhere in the system that you can bring this to light.”
“My health was so badly affected that I had no option but to leave.”
It will be the same here and the government does not care and when someone sticks up for the teachers, they get shot down why?
The fact is the government are bullies and they are promoting now the bullying of teachers and anyone who tries to make a point like Mary Lou is then attack by a person who acts like a bully?
I thought that Mary Lou would do a sit-in if she was really passionate about the rights of teachers.
iPhone Joan will have no prob getting job when she gets gate this year
“Haunting houses she will clean up”
Some mistake surely, shouldn’t Lairy Moo be compared to a martyr instead?
have your say