The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has offered reassurances to the people of Ireland that nothing will put peace at risk in the upcoming negotiations with the UK.



In a speech to Ireland’s parliament, Michel Barnier said the EU was committed to mitigating the impact of Brexit on Ireland, noting that the country had already seen the value of its exports to the UK suffer because of weakened sterling.

Barnier promised to help the Republic avoid a return to a hard border with Northern Ireland after Brexit, but said the UK’s departure from the EU would have consequences for customs controls.

“We have the duty to speak the truth. Customs controls are part of EU management – they protect the single market, they protect our food safety and our standards … But, as I’ve already said, nothing should put peace at risk,” he added.

Businesses and politicians in the Republic and Northern Ireland want to avoid the restrictions on movement that have existed in the past.

Barnier will visit a dairy business on the Irish border on Friday to see first-hand the impact Brexit may have on local firms straddling the border. About 30% of milk produced in Northern Ireland is sent south of the border to be processed, while significant amounts of milk go north of the border to be processed into cheddar cheese for export to the UK.

Addressing both houses of the Irish parliament in Dublin, Barnier acknowledged that Ireland was in a unique position over Brexit, adding: “Ireland’s interest will be the union’s interest.”

Barnier used the occasion to repeat the appeal for calm issued by Donald Tusk, president of the European council, during Brexit negotiations.

“If we put things in the right order, if we negotiate with mutual respect without any kind of aggression … if we are open to finding a solution, there is no reason why a strong Europe cannot maintain a strong relationship with the UK,” he said.

Barnier said he was fully aware of Ireland’s unique ties with Britain and that some EU member states would be more affected than others by Brexit.

“As the EU’s chief negotiator, my objective is to reach a fair deal,” he said. “I want to reassure the Irish people in this negotiation, Ireland’s interest will be the union’s interest. We are in this negotiation together and a united EU will be here for you.”

Barnier’s address to both houses of parliament was a privilege normally afforded only to visiting heads of state and prime ministers. He started his speech by telling Irish MPs and senators that he was personally invested in the peace process that led to the Good Friday agreement, signed 20 years ago.

“I was the commissioner in charge of the peace programme and I have not forgotten my conversations with John Hume and David Trimble at that point,” Barnier said in reference to two of the chief architects of the peace agreement.

Ireland has already been identified as one of the top three priorities in the first phase of Brexit negotiations, together with citizens’ rights and the divorce settlement with the UK.

The Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, welcomed Barnier’s remarks, saying he was “pleased with the tone of the EU guidelines, which is open and constructive”.

The leader of Ireland’s Labour party, Brendan Howlin, said Brexit had set back trade by a generation. The disappearance of the UK from the single market would mean that, for Ireland, the single market would be merely an “aspiration”, Howlin added.

Richard Boyd Barrett, of the People Before Profit Alliance, asked Barnier if the EU could be trusted after ordinary Irish taxpayers were left on the hook for bailed-out bondholders in the financial crash in 2008.