Irish PM warns scrapping protocol would be 'serious'

The Irish prime minister has warned it would be a “very serious situation” if the UK government enacted legislation to scrap the bulk of the Northern Ireland protocol.

- CATE MCCURRY

Micheal Martin said the legislation would amount to “economic vandalism” on Northern Ireland.

Mr Martin also said that the European Union wants to avoid a trade war, and that the issues around the protocol can be resolved through negotiation. Last week, the bloc launched fresh legal action against the UK in retaliation for the prime minister’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which will effectively rip up key parts of the deal agreed by Mr Johnson and the EU in 2019.

“If this Bill is enacted, I think we’re into a very serious situation. But of course, no one in Northern Ireland and no one in the island of Ireland wants Northern Ireland to lose access to the EU market,” Mr Martin told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme.

“I think that’s one consistent thread. I think if we have a complete unilateral reneging on an international agreement that the United Kingdom government itself signed up to, then of course we’re in a very serious situation. But we want to avoid that; nobody wants a trade war in any shape or form.