Read moreTheir upbeat assessment came as Arlene Foster, the leader of the DUP, which props up the Tory government and has threatened to block Theresa May’s deal over the Irish border issue, also indicated a deal appeared close. Coveney said negotiating teams had worked hard to allay British fears over the backstop, a device intended to avert a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in the absence of a Brexit deal. Ireland’s justice minister, Charlie Flanagan, and the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, also attended the Dublin meeting. “If Northern Ireland is subject to EU single market regulations, then it will also be subject to the ECJ in some form as the arbiter of those regulations. Raab’s visit to Warrenpoint Port was the first of any UK minister to a Northern Irish port since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Source: The Guardian November 02, 2018 19:31 UTC