Brexit: UK dismissal of NI protocol solutions 'more serious'

Ireland's foreign minister has accused the UK of repeatedly dismissing EU proposals on the Northern Ireland Protocol before they are published.

This is happening again this week but it is now "more serious", Simon Coveney has warned.

Unionists argue it creates a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

They say it undermines Northern Ireland's constitutional position as part of the UK.

The proposals will focus on easing practical problems with the movement of goods from Britain to Northern Ireland, rather than changing oversight arrangements.

Mr Coveney told RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme that the UK's dismissals were now "more serious", given the comprehensive compromise proposals the EU is bringing forward.

"Each time the EU comes forward with new ideas, new proposals to try to solve problems, they are dismissed before they are released and that is happening again this week," Mr Coveney said.

He said dismissals were being seen across the EU as "the same pattern, over and over again" by the UK.

He made the comments after the UK reiterated that it wants the European Court of Justice (ECJ) removed from oversight of the deal.

Mr Coveney said this was the creation of a new "red line" which the EU cannot move on.

On Tuesday, the UK's Brexit Minister Lord Frost will give a speech in which he is expected to tell diplomats that removing the ECJ's role in dispute settlement is necessary to sustain the protocol.

He is due to say: "Without new arrangements in this area the protocol will never have the support it needs to survive.

"The role of the ECJ in Northern Ireland and the consequent inability of the UK government to implement the very sensitive arrangements in the protocol in a reasonable way has created a deep imbalance in the way the protocol operates."

Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said on Monday that his party had concerns around the jurisdiction of the ECJ.

"We do not believe they are fully independent when it comes to arbitrating on issues related to trade between the United Kingdom and the European Union," he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"We recognise why the government has that concern, but the government in the end, they are the negotiating party and they have to press these issues."