Hopes of Brexit deal dwindle as talks falter

Government hopes of a Brexit deal are dwindling after difficult talks between British and EU negotiators broke up ahead of key votes in Westminster next week.

Attention now turns to Sunday to whether Britain will make a second attempt to wrestle some compromise out of the EU on the backstop.

With just three weeks until the March 29 Brexit deadline, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ruled out any concessions for Britain, insisting that the backstop to prevent a hard border was ideally temporary in nature.

There is now speculation that British attorney general Geoffrey Cox will return to Brussels for further talks on Sunday with the Brexit taskforce. British prime minister Theresa May needs to bring some compromise to Westminster MPs before a vote on her deal next Tuesday.

In the event this fails, Wednesday will see MPs vote to reject a no-deal while there is a parliament proposal for a Brexit extension on the Thursday.

Nonetheless, Irish Government sources are pessimistic after “difficult” British-EU talks broke up this week without agreement.

“The British need to show what they have gained, but the feelings are not positive,” explained one source.

Mr Varadkar said Ireland would not be offering up any more concessions to Britain, insisting a lot had already been conceded.

Speaking in Dublin, he said: “I think we’ve made a lot of concessions already. I often wonder why people are asking us to make further concessions, we’ve made a lot of concessions already; accepting a UK wide element to the backstop when we only ever wanted it to be Northern Ireland specific.

We never asked to tie-in Britain into any of these arrangements. We’ve already agreed to a review clause and a good faith cause.

“This problem of a hard border on our island with disruption to trade and our economy, these are problems created in Britain. Surely they are the ones coming forward with further concessions and further offers to us in terms of what more they can do to mitigate the damage they are creating,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said his interpretation and that of the EU is that the backstop is temporary and will apply unless and until a new arrangement supersedes it. That could be a UK-wife deal with the EU that is very close to what we have now or it could be a special arrangement for Northern Ireland.

In relation to the possible return of a border in the event of a no-deal, Mr Varadkar rejected that such a situation is inevitable.

“I don’t accept that a hard border is inevitable and we’ve made no preparation for physical infrastructure with checks and controls on the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“If that arises we will have to have some difficult discussions with the EU and the UK about that but I certainly don’t accept it’s inevitable,” he said.