Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said he believes there is a good chance Britain and the European Union would secure a trade deal within days.
“It's the time to hold our nerve and trust Michel Barnier. And I believe if we do that, there's a good chance that we can get a deal across the line in the next few days,” he told Newstalk radio.
Mr Coveney said that while the UK does not always behave like it wants a Brexit trade deal, he believes the British government does want a deal to be agreed.
But he admitted it was no secret that both sides are running out of time in the trade talks.
EU and British officials are trying to hammer out a deal ahead of the end of the transition period on December 31st, and the Minister voiced his concern of a no-deal scenario in 2022.
“The implication of essentially no deal ... means that we move into a period of significant disruption, cost, stress and tension and political blame games between London and Brussels. And from an Irish perspective, we get caught in the cross fires there,” he said.
Mr Coveney said the Irish and French positions on Brexit were “very much in sync with each other” and he had high praise for the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier for doing “a phenomenal job” in the negotiations.
Paris trip
This comes as Mr Coveney visits Paris on Thursday for discussions with his French counterparts to exchange views on Brexit and other European issues of common interest.
Ahead of the visit he said: “I am very happy to be in Paris today to work on deepening the extensive and ever-important partnership between Ireland and France.
“Our enduring friendship has proven invaluable this year as we have worked together to deal with the economic and social challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
He will hold discussions with the French minister for european and foreign affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian. He will also meet with the French minister of state for european affairs, Clément Beaune.
Mr Coveney added: “At this important moment, I look forward to discussing Brexit with my French colleagues.
“I greatly appreciate the solidarity that France has consistently shown throughout this process.”
Fishing rights
Meanwhile on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, the chief executive of the Irish South & West Fish Producers Organisation, Patrick Murphy, called for measures to be put in place to protect the Irish fishing industry.
Mr Murphy said that the Irish fishing community had been decimated in the past decade with a 42 per cent reduction in boats. “We have seen the industry being wiped out,” he said.
Fishing boats go where the fish are, he said, and his fear was that if the fleet had to move out of UK waters, then fishing boats from other countries would come into Irish waters.
