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A Brexit deal between the UK and the EU is \u201cin sight\u201d and could be reached by the start of November, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said.<\/p>\nA Brexit deal between the UK and the EU is \u201cin sight\u201d and could be reached by the start of November, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney said he believed an agreement would be made, despite the two sides being \u201cmiles apart\u201d on fisheries.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney said: \u201cMy assessment of this is a deal can be done here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe a deal will be done here but there\u2019s a lot of difficult work to do and I think it is going to take weeks rather than days to finalize this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that by the start of November that we will be in the space of a deal in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr Coveney warned that if it took until November to reach agreement, time would be \u201creally running out\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Fine Gael TD made the comments during a parliamentary committee meeting on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in Dublin on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney described fisheries as a core issue that could prevent a trade agreement between the two sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EU is not going to sell out its fishing industry to get a trade deal on Brexit. Both sides need to understand that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFishing won\u2019t be sacrificed to get a deal here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney told politicians that if an agreement was not reached in time, the aftermath of a failed negotiation and the blame game that would follow would create \u201cenormous uncertainty\u201d for everyone.<\/p>\n
He said it was going to be \u201cdifficult enough to manage\u201d the new reality from January 1 alongside trying to deal with Covid-19, even if a deal is done and an agreement is in place.<\/p>\n
He told the committee that it was \u201cvital\u201d that the protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement was implemented \u201cin full and in good faith\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the EU and Ireland had outlined their \u201cprofound concern\u201d to the UK Government over its Internal Market Bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK must move away from the path it has chosen in the Bill and work to rebuild trust on implementing the WA in full and in good faith,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe absence of that makes other agreements very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Irish Government was \u201cparticularly concerned\u201d by suggestions from the UK Government that its unilateral approach was designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protocol itself is specifically designed to protect the agreement and the gains of the peace process including avoiding a hard border,\u201d he said, adding \u201cwe spent literally years trying to design it in order to do that\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added it was important that the Good Friday Agreement was not \u201cmisrepresented\u201d in Westminster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe twisting of what the Good Friday Agreement actually is is a big, big issue that all of us need to be aware of and need to respond to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like we need to make sure that here in Dublin or anywhere else for that matter, we don\u2019t exaggerate or misrepresent the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve to make sure that\u2019s not happening elsewhere either, particularly in Westminster.\u201d<\/p>\n