Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, John Brady TD, today expressed concern over comments by EU negotiator on Brexit Michel Barnier, following the seventh round of trade talks between the EU and Britain.

Teachta Brady said: “It is alarming that with only two months to go until the EU deadline of October expires, we have the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier claiming that it is his belief that at this stage a deal looked unlikely.

“If there is a failure to secure agreement, this will represent an even greater challenge to already struggling businesses across the island of Ireland. We will see higher tariffs, and potential chaos for traffic entering and leaving Britain.

“EU negotiators believe that the British have a strategy of running things down to the wire, of leaving the most difficult issues until the end. But this means that until agreement around the core issues is reached, other negotiations must stall.

“At the moment, the most recent talk stymied on the issue of fishing rights and competition. Barnier’s claim that it felt as though they were going backwards rather than forwards is deeply worrying.

“The next round of talks between the British government and the EU are scheduled for September 7. The British government needs to start engaging with intent at this point.

“Time is running out. Tory brinkmanship is leading to a backlog in issues that can and should be dealt with. They are being impacted on by intransigence around a number of core issues.

“If the Tories continue in this vein, we will end up sleepwalking into a no deal Brexit.”