London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

Serious intent in EU to fix Northern Ireland border row, says Irish PM

Serious intent in EU to fix Northern Ireland border row, says Irish PM

There is "serious intent" in the EU to solve post-Brexit difficulties over the Northern Ireland border, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin has said.

Speaking to the BBC, he said the "mood music" surrounding EU-UK negotiations had improved in recent weeks.

But he admitted feeling "frustrated" that the issue had hindered the "full flowering" of the two sides' alliance.

And he warned the UK against acting unilaterally, saying it would "undermine" relationships.

The Taoiseach's comments come ahead of a meeting between the UK's Brexit Minister Lord Frost and the EU Commission Vice-President Maros Šefčovič in Brussels on Friday aimed at resolving problems arising from the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The protocol was part of the EU-UK Brexit deal designed to avoid implementing border checks on the island of Ireland.

It created a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, meaning some goods such as meat and eggs are subject to checks when they enter Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

This has angered some Northern Irish politicians including DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson who said the protocol was disrupting businesses and harming trade.

But in an interview with the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Martin insisted there was "not an abundance of checks" on the border and that Northern Ireland benefitted from having access to both the European and UK markets.

Loyalist demonstrators protesting against the Northern Ireland protocol in Belfast earlier this year


However, he added that the EU "sincerely" wanted to engage with the problems, which he said could be "resolved with goodwill on all sides".

He acknowledged that "there have been periods during these talks when they've dragged on with very little happening" but added that "now there's a bit of engagement, of serious intent".

He said the protocol was "never going to be perfect", adding: "It's important that we don't allow perfect become the enemy of the good."

He also urged the prime minister to believe that Brussels' offer of compromise was genuine and urged him not to take too long to move towards a deal saying "don't leave it to Christmas Eve this year" - a reference to last year's Brexit deal which was agreed on 24 December.

Earlier this month, Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned that the whole post-Brexit deal between the UK and the EU could collapse over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

But, Mr Martin suggested the "mood music" had since changed.

The Brexit deal has seen checks on goods going from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland


"A number of weeks ago there was a different atmosphere governing the this situation and there was all sorts of rumours and vibes... since then, that has calmed down somewhat," he said.

But he still warned the UK against acting "unilaterally", arguing it could "undermine" the two countries' relationship.

The UK government has said there are still "significant gaps" between the two sides and suggested it could trigger Article 16 of the protocol, if the problems over the border cannot be solved.

The article allows either side to suspend any part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement that causes "economic, societal or environmental difficulties".

If the UK did trigger Article 16, the EU could respond by imposing tariffs on trade between the two sides.


What's the Irish PM's message to the UK?


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×