Ireland wants to avoid backstop but restricted by lack of alternatives

Ireland's foreign minister insisted there was no credible fallback option to take the place of the "backstop" to prevent the return of border checks on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

"We are all committed to ensuring that the backstop never takes effect and should it ever take effect, we are committed to trying to ensure that it is only temporary and can be replaced with something more permanent," Simon Coveney told an Irish parliamentary committee on Thursday.

"But for the moment, in my view, there is not another credible fallback solution that can take the place of the backstop and that is why EU leaders have been so clear and why the British prime minister has been so clear that there is a need for the backstop, even though we want to avoid using it."