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Ireland is open to \u201cmodest\u201d extensions of waivers on the movement of certain goods from Britain into Northern Ireland after the British government asked the European Union to tweak post-Brexit rules, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney was speaking ahead of talks on the issue next week in London between British cabinet office minister Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, both of whom Mr Coveney said he was in regular contact with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be open to advocating for modest extensions of grace periods,\u201d Mr Coveney told RT\u00c9, but he said there was no question of scrapping the Northern Ireland protocol of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney insisted the protocol was generally working, highlighting that the volume of goods arriving into Northern Ireland ports was similar to this time last year.<\/p>\n
Responding to a claim from Arlene Foster that he was \u201ctone deaf\u201d to unionist concerns about the protocol, Mr Coveney insisted he was just trying to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalls to scrap the protocol because there are some issues in terms of implementation just isn\u2019t realistic and I\u2019ve tried to be as honest about that as I can this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does not mean trying to pick a fight with the DUP, it\u2019s just me being honest with people.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot simply scrap an element of an international treaty five weeks into its implementation, because you don\u2019t like elements of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood warned that power-sharing in the North could be under threat if political unionism continues to agitate for the \u201cunrealistic\u201d scrapping of new Irish Sea trading arrangements.<\/p>\n
Mr Eastwood urged the DUP to end talk of political boycotts and dial down the rhetoric, and instead join with other Stormont parties to find workable solutions to issues linked to the Northern Ireland protocol.<\/p>\n
Asked by RT\u00c9 if there could be a threat to power-sharing if unionists took an increasingly hardline approach to the protocol, Mr Eastwood said: \u201cYes, I think there could be and unionism needs to learn the lesson that they should have learned a number of times over the past 100 years \u2013 the British government will let you down and if you keep going to the right you\u2019re going to end up in a worse position when you come back to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo come and work with us, let\u2019s get together, the spirit of power-sharing is what\u2019s important right now, working in partnership to deal with the problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut continuing to run to the microphone, have petitions and talk about protests and all that \u2013 none of that works, it\u2019s not based in reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the DUP campaigned for Brexit, it was a strategic error at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can now work together to resolve some of the difficulty, but let\u2019s all calm down, work together, put the rhetoric at the door because it\u2019s not going to help and it will have a political impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing stability being rocked this week in a number of different ways and I think as political leaders we all have a responsibility, first and foremost, to be honest with our people and tell them what the scenario is, what the context is, why we have trading barriers and also come together to work through it, because the alternative is just not worth contemplating.\u201d<\/p>\n