Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he hopes nobody has been looking for sites along the border, after Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams asked him about reports the Government has been identifying location points for customs checkpoints along the border after Brexit.
Mr Adams raised the issue during Taoiseach's Questions this afternoon.
The Taoiseach said: "In respect of the border; I hope there is nobody looking for sites along the border.
"I have seen reports drafted by Customs Officials but I have an agreement with the British government that there will be no return to the border of the past and that means customs posts along the border.
"This is a British policy. It is not a technological issue. It is a political challenge and we do not want to see that happen because you know very well the implications of that.
"We are not standing for any return to the borders of the past.
"Agreement between our two countries and our two governments will make that case very strongly and very clearly. Nobody I have met north or south wants a return to that."
Mr Kenny will later today address the Institute of International and European Affairs on Brexit.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny says he has an agreement with @theresa_may govt that 'there'll be no return to border of past' after #brexit @rtenews pic.twitter.com/Q8cJBrC1Y8
— Conor McMorrow (@ConorMcMorrow) February 15, 2017
IIEA founder and President Brendan Halligan this afternoon said the idea of an all-island customs arrangement is something Ireland should be aiming for.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Halligan said he does not think there is any alternative but to aim for it.
He said it would be "regrettable for the British government to be taking up a categoric position" on borders at the moment, adding "whatever is agreed with Ireland will be in the context of the overall new relationship between the EU and the UK, so I think it's far too early to be making definitive statements like that".
He said he believes the British strategy in the Brexit negotiations "will to be to try and get Northern Ireland as an issue off the agenda fairly early on in the negotiations, whereas I suspect that our strategy will be the complete opposite which is that it should come at the end and be an integral part of whatever is agreed overall by the 27 member states of the union."
He said he thinks it's very important for Ireland "to be stressing solidarity among the member states" adding that Ireland is "six times more dependent than the European average on the UK market for exports".
