The Irish prime minister has said he is looking forward to hearing first-hand Boris Johnson’s proposals for a deal on Brexit checks on the Irish border in what appears to be a softening of the UK’s approach to the backstop.

He was responding to little-reported comments by Johnson on Tuesday in the House of Commons suggesting that the island of Ireland would be treated as one regulatory unit in relation to agrifood.

Johnson said the UK was “ready to find a way forward that recognises [the] reality” that the island of Ireland, north and south, had evolved into one epidemiological unit. The remarks were an echo of the first proposal to solve the Irish border issue, which would have involved a Northern Ireland-only backstop with checks at ports and airports.

However, Ireland’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said any suggestion that there could yet be a Brexit breakthrough on the basis of this single issue would be unrealistic as it did not address other issues such as identity, the integrity of the single market and culture.

A spokesman for Varadkar said: “He is looking forward to the meeting with the prime minister on Monday and hearing what he has to say. That particular proposal covers just one aspect of cross-border activity. It’s not a replacement for the backstop.”

Johnson told the Commons on Tuesday: “We recognise that for reasons of geography and economics, agrifood is increasingly managed on a common basis across the island of Ireland.

“We are ready to find a way forward that recognises this reality, provided that it clearly enjoys the consent of all parties and institutions with an interest. We will discuss that with the EU shortly, and I will discuss it with the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, when I see him in Dublin on Monday.”

The Democratic Unionist party has been implacably opposed to a Northern Ireland-only backstop, arguing this would sever Northern Ireland’s constitutional bond with the rest of the UK with checks down the Irish Sea.



However, the party’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, has told BBC Newsline in Northern Ireland that his party was open to discussions with Johnson on the issue.

“On agrifood, there are issues there in terms of the industry,” he said, adding, however, that he wanted a deal that was not “injurious to the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.