Varadkar must make no Brexit concessions as deal looks likely

There was considerable and obviously well informed speculation last weekend about a proposal to align regulation between the North and the Republic as a means of avoiding a hard border between both parts of the island, writes Jim Power.

I have to admit that I was very sceptical about this proposal from the moment I heard it and could not understand how it would possibly work.

However, on Monday, I was attending a meeting in Wicklow from early morning and when I got into my car early afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised and more than a little shocked to hear a deal had apparently been done on this basis.

That obviously did not turn out to be the case and for very good reasons, that should not have come as a surprise to anybody.

Regulatory alignment between both parts of the island would effectively have separated the North from the UK in a very significant way and while I have little interest in Northern politics, the bit I do know would have convinced me most unionists would never accept that possibility.

They are entitled to that view and that stance as they do account for almost half of the population of the North and vehemently want to remain part of the UK.

It beats me how the prime minister and the Taoiseach ever believed that they would slip this one past the DUP.

After the breakdown, the Brexit Secretary David Davis went on to suggest that the UK as a whole could have “regulatory alignment” with the EU.

This seems totally and utterly ludicrous as, ostensibly, the key reason for voting to leave the EU in the first place was to escape from EU regulation and introduce whatever type of regulation would be needed to do trade deals with non-EU countries.

I can only imagine how the Brexiteers felt about this suggestion from Mr Davis.

One could be tempted to conclude that the UK side of this bargaining process has not got a clue about what is really going on.

The prime minister is probably one of the few exceptions, but politically, the eurosceptic Brexiteers in her party on one side and the DUP on the other bind both of her hands.

Thanks to her folly in calling a general election last June and her dismal performance during the campaign, she has effectively ceded most of her power.

That is not a good place to start such serious negotiations, but it does make reaching a sensible and pragmatic agreement extremely difficult.

From an Irish perspective, the Taoiseach appeared to be on the brink of achieving a big win last Monday, which would have gone some way towards undoing some of the political damage inflicted on him and his government the previous week.

Alas, through no fault of his own, it was not to be.

North-South and UK-Ireland relations have certainly been damaged over the past couple of weeks, but this is inevitable given what is involved.

It is now incumbent on the Taoiseach to fight this fight to the very end and not make any concessions that would threaten North-South trade and, more importantly, the Good Friday Agreement.

It is possible that by the time this article goes to print, a fresh wording will have been released by the prime minister in order to placate her disobedient children.

This won’t be easy, but I have a gut instinct that some sort of breakthrough will be achieved and that the second round of Brexit negotiations will get the green light next week.