Ireland hopes for Brexit deal but steps up hard Brexit preparations

The Irish government is intensifying preparations for the possibility that Britain crashes out of the European Union without an exit deal even though it expects agreement in the coming weeks, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday. "I still expect that we will have a deal in the next few weeks, but it is only prudent of course that as every day passes that we intensify preparations for no deal and that is very much what Ireland is doing," Varadkar told journalists in Germany where he is attending a meeting of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party.