Sky News host Adam Boulton has responded to remarks made about his controversial interview with Simon Coveney saying "you Irish need to get over yourselves".

Taking to Twitter, Mr Boulton said that he was "bored now" with the controversy.

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Bored now. Some of you Irish need to get over yourselves. Interviewing is about challenging the interviewee not respecting. — Adam Boulton (@adamboultonSKY) December 9, 2017

"Bored now. Some of you Irish need to get over yourselves. Interviewing is about challenging the interviewee not respecting," Mr Boulton wrote on Twitter.

The comment comes after Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was asked last week by Mr Boulton whether he thinks the "kerfuffle" over the Brexit negotiations was "necessary".

Issues surrounding the protection of the Good Friday Agreement, the Common Travel Area and the guarantee of no hard border on the island of Ireland proved to be a sticking point in crunch talks.

The European Commission then announced that the UK is "committed" to protecting North-South co-operation and guaranteed avoiding a hard border here.

The Tánaiste appeared on Sky News to discuss the development.

Anchor Adam Boulton asked him: "Do think that this week’s kerfuffle has been necessary? Do you feel slightly guilty that perhaps the Irish government over-briefed what had been achieved as a victory over the British for the European Union?

"That [then] provoked the DUP and if you had been a bit more straightforward about a practical agreement at the beginning we wouldn’t have had these four days of turmoil."

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Mr Coveney stressed that our government needed these reassurances, otherwise it would have been like "a jump in the dark."

The minister said: "Clearly that's a briefing you've been getting from the British side, we never looked for or claimed any victory over anybody.

"We have been saying for many months now that we want to work with the British government to try to find a way forward that can reassure people in Ireland as well as within the UK that we can manage Brexit and we can limit damage in the way that’s now in this agreement.

"That has always been our position and, yes of course, there has been some friction because many people have been saying, ‘look we don’t need and don’t want to give those assurances right now, we’ll deal with these issues in phase two’.

"The Irish government’s response has always been that, for us, that’s like a jump into the dark.

"We don’t know where we’re going to land, we don’t know whether we’re going to have unintended consequences and we need basic reassurance that actually certain things will not happen under any circumstances when we move onto phase two."

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney answers Adam Boulton's "do you think this week's kerfuffle has been necessary?" pic.twitter.com/PkoJ0VgZ9y — Robert (@RobDunsmore) December 8, 2017

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He also went on to explain what the key issues were for Ireland during the talks and why they are "really important."

Mr Coveney said: "One of those issues is the assurance that there will not be a hard border on the island.

"Another is that we will protect the Good Friday Agreement, another is that we will protect peace funding.

"Another is that we will protect what is called the Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain so that people will be able to move between both countries and live,work, study and access social welfare entitlements, health care and so on.

"All of those things are really important, they are part of normal life and the relationship between our two islands, which is a complex one but a deeply woven one between Irish and British people.

"We wanted some guarantees and assurances in phase one before we move onto phase two, so that we can settle some of the concerns that people have and I think we have achieved that."

Online Editors