COMMITMENTS to avoid a hard border after Brexit are being accurately reflected in a legal document due to be published this week, the Tánaiste has said.
Simon Coveney held talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels yesterday and said he was very happy with the text.
"I think people will judge for themselves. I think they will see it's an accurate reflection of what was politically agreed in December," Mr Coveney said.
When phase one of the Brexit negotiations finished before Christmas the Irish government said it had secured cast iron guarantees there would be no return to a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland when the UK leaves Europe.
Despite those assurances, British Prime Minister Theresa May's Government has insisted the UK will not be joining a customs union and that it wants to be free to sign trade deals with other parts of the world.
Mrs May is to set out the latest developments in her own plans for Brexit on Friday, after a special meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday.
But Mr Coveney said the Irish government and Mr Barnier are of "one mind" on the text of the legal document due to be published on Wednesday.
"It will be faithful and true to the political agreement that was made in December and translating that effectively into a legal text that can then be a draft withdrawal agreement from the EU's perspective," the Tánaiste said.
Mr Coveney said there will be quite a lot of detail on Ireland in the document, including on a possible default position in the event that no deal is reached on issues around trade, travel and customs between the EU and UK before 2019.
"Our preference will be to try and solve a lot of the Irish border issues and Irish issues through an option A, which hopefully we hear an awful lot more about from the British Prime Minister on Friday," he said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Taoiseach's office said he and Mrs May had a telephone call about Brexit last night.
The spokesman said Mr Varadkar and Mrs May discussed the draft agreement on the UK's withdrawal from the bloc.
"Both the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister said they want the options, as set out in the December Joint Report, to be examined in detail," he said.
"This would include the preferred option of a satisfactory solution to the border problem being found within the overall future relationship between the EU and the UK.
"The Taoiseach also repeated the necessity from the EU side to have the detail of the backstop option of full regulatory alignment spelled out in the draft legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement.
"This option would only come into effect if agreement on one of the other options is not reached."
He said the leaders also discussed the political impasse in the north.
