Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, has described Boris Johnson’s approach to Brexit talks as putting the UK “on a collision course with the EU”.

Johnson told Britain’s parliament on Thursday the Irish border backstop had to be abolished or there would be no Brexit deal.

“The statements of the British prime minister yesterday in the House of Commons were very unhelpful to this process,” Coveney said after meeting the new Northern Ireland secretary in Belfast on Friday.

“He seems to have made a deliberate decision to set Britain on a collision course with the European Union and with Ireland in relation to the Brexit negotiations, and I think only he can answer the question as to why he is doing that,” Coveney said.

He said Johnson’s approach “is not the basis for an agreement”.

“I think from a Brexit negotiating perspective, it was a very bad day yesterday. We will have to wait whether that message coming from London changes in the weeks ahead,” said Coveney.

But after the first meeting with Julian Smith, the new Northern Ireland secretary, he also hinted at a breakthrough in talks about the devolved government, saying there was hope of a deal concluding in the coming weeks.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney says British PM Boris Johnson's approach to Brexit talks yesterday was "very unhelpful" pic.twitter.com/3fRfVirkDB — RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 26, 2019

Johnson’s spokesman, meanwhile, has said the UK is ready to begin talks with the EU on Brexit, but is clear-eyed about what the basis for those discussions is.

The Belfast meeting with Smith, the former chief whip, was the first British-Irish engagement since Boris Johnson became prime minister.

The Irish border backstop is a central part of the withdrawal agreement and commits both sides to maintaining an invisible border on the island of Ireland should trade talks collapse. Johnson has said there were ways to achieve this other than by keeping Northern Ireland aligned with the republic and EU’s regulations on customs and trading standards until a solution was found.

Good meeting with new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland @JulianSmithUK. I stressed the need to get Stormont back up and running and the importance of the Irish & British governments working together as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement.🇮🇪 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/wUwkw2BEll — Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 26, 2019

However, Ireland is also concerned about intangibles such as peace and community relations on the border.

Johnson’s approach has been rebuffed by the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, in a phone call on Thursday.

Coveney said there was a renewed sense of urgency about getting Stormont back up and running given the challenges the region faces in the coming months.

He said there was hope that a deal could be concluded in the coming weeks to restore power two-and-a-half years after the Stormont assembly collapsed.

Democratic Unionist party sources have said they are also hopeful of a breakthrough.

The party’s leader, Arlene Foster, has said she is keen to get the local institutions up and running again to get money and reforms flowing again on health and education.