Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the current Brexit deal, which was agreed earlier this month, is the “only deal on the table”.
His comments came after an EU summit where the leaders of all member states formally accepted the deal agreed with the UK.
The agreement now faces one more major hurdle – a vote in the UK House of Commons next month, with the prospects of the deal passing seen as slim.
The Taoiseach, and others, have said that if the deal is rejected by MPs in London, then the result will be a no-deal Brexit.
I hear a lot of people talking about better deals or alternative deals, and anyone can have a better deal or an alternative deal in their own minds; but an agreement, 500 pages long, that all member states can agree to, nobody has that.
“What’s on the table is the only deal that’s on the table,” said Varadkar.
His sentiments were mirrored by other EU leaders who also spoke of their disappointment at the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
Jean-Claude Junker, president of the European Commission, said that: “This is the best deal possible for Britain, and it is the only deal possible.”
“So, if the House [of Commons] says no, we would have no deal,” he added.
The deal will see the UK remain in a single custom territory with the EU, and will keep the Northern Ireland backstop in place, which will avoid a hard border between it and the Republic.