Simon Coveney: Post-Brexit transition ‘up to four years’
Speaking at the All-Island Civic Dialogue on Brexit, Simon Coveney said a longer transition period of anywhere between two and four years would be better for this country.
However, he warned that he is not satisfied with the speed of negotiations, claiming “we are not where we need to be” on the issue of the border with Northern Ireland.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also attended the event in Kilmainham yesterday and highlighted the importance of hearing from the business community, farmers, and civic society from the border communities.
“I think the fact that the British have explicitly stated that they don’t want any physical infrastructure on the border is welcome and the fact that they want a transition phase is something that is welcome too.”
Mr Varadkar will have a chance to speak about Brexit when he meets a number of European leaders in Tallinn at the Digital Summit today.
Meanwhile, Mr Coveney says there has not been sufficient progress on Brexit, hinting that it will be unlikely that enough detail will be agreed upon ahead of the European Summit of leaders next month, and added that more work is needed around citizens’ rights and the Irish border.
“I don’t think we have sufficient progress yet,” he said, adding that there was a need to “bring more progress around how we are going to resolve the question of maintaining largely an invisible border on the island of Ireland, to maintain the status quo in terms of the all-island economy, while at the same time respecting the fact that Northern Ireland and Britain are leaving the European Union. That’s not easy.”
“We aren’t where we need to be on the border issues and while I think a lot of what the [British] prime minister said last week was very welcome in terms of her aspirations around those issues, in terms of where we want to get to in the end, we don’t have the roadmap to get us there.”
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin called for a special economic zone for the North and the border counties. “We think that meets the existing constitutional framework but also gives an opportunity to retain Northern Ireland access to the single market.”
Separately, Mr Coveney said an agreement on re- establishing the Northern Ireland Assembly is urgently needed but said there will be another week of talks.
“What we are trying to do at the moment is give the two largest parties in Northern Ireland the time and space to negotiate with each other and find accommodation on some sensitive political issues that we need to make progress on before an executive can be set up again in Northern Ireland.
“We are trying to work through what are a relatively small number of issues left now, in order for the parties to work with the other parties in Northern Ireland to put hopefully a fully inclusive executive in place within the next number of weeks, but we are not quite there yet. I suspect there is at least another week in this yet.”
