THE BRITISH government has pledged to make fresh proposals on resolving the post-Brexit border but has yet to commit to anything in writing, the taoiseach has said.
Leo Varadkar said the UK had yet to put forward written proposals on the Irish protocol, which would contain the backstop, but he said British Prime Minister Theresa May was "working hard", describing her efforts as "very sincere."
The Fine Gael leader was speaking after a 40-minute meeting with his Tory counterpart in Salzburg yesterday ahead of an informal summit of the 27 EU leaders.
The taoiseach's remarks came ahead of the head of the European Council Donald Tusk declaring that Mrs May's so-called Chequers plan "will not work", as it risked undermining the EU's single market.
Mr Varadkar said other states offered him their full support in Brexit talks, giving their assurance that "an agreement that doesn't work for Ireland, doesn't work for the EU".
"There will be no withdrawal agreement without an Irish protocol," he said
He told Norwegian television: "The EU is very united around our view that we need to protect the integrity of the single market and any agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, which we can achieve in the next couple of months, must involve an Irish protocol, a guarantee that a hard border doesn't emerge in Ireland.
Dublin government sources described the meeting "useful" but cautioned that agreement on the backstop was unlikely to be reached in time for the October European Council.
Mr Varadkar told a post-meeting press conference that any agreement on the backstop would be between the UK and the European Union, and not between Ireland and the UK.
Asked if Brexit would necessitate either a border on the island of Ireland or on the Irish Sea, Mr Varadkar said there was already a political and a currency border.
"What we want to avoid is any new barriers to the movement of goods, any new barriers to trade, any new barriers to the movement of people," he said.
"Just think of all the people who cross the border every day to work or study. Think of all the businesses who trade across the border."
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Simon Coveney, said he believes it is possible for the UK's negotiators to make the significant progress necessary to resolve the Irish border issue, in time for the EU summit in October.
Speaking on RTÉ last night, he said that 90 per cent of the legal text needed for a legal treaty to facilitate the UK leave the European Union in a way that is managed and controlled, has been completed.
He said that the remaining text, which concerns the Irish border issue, was always going to be the most difficult to resolve.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs earlier said that while Mrs May's government did not agree with the European Union's text for the withdrawal treaty, it had failed to bring its own alternative.
He described the consequences of a no-deal Brexit as "damaging and severe".
