Last December the British Government signed up to a deal to avoid a hard border on our island, safeguard the Good Friday Agreement, in all of its parts, and ensure there would be no loss of citizens' rights. At the time we were told that there was a deal to provide a backstop that would recognise the unique circumstances of the North and all of Ireland in the event that a comprehensive free trade deal was not agreed to in the future. We were told that the agreed arrangement would be enshrined in an operable legal text by March. That did not happen. We were then told that the British Government would produce firm proposals by the time of the June meeting of the European Council. That did not happen either. Then the deadline became October. Clearly, that deadline is now to be breached. Yesterday the Taoiseach said negotiations could continue into next month or up to the meeting of the European Council in December. The long and the short of it is that time is quickly running out for a deal to be struck. This is a direct consequence of the British Government's prevarication and abysmal failure to produce any realistic proposal. Its latest proposal for a time-limited backstop means that, in reality, there is no backstop at all. I met the British Prime Minister yesterday and have made this point bluntly to her. I have told her that she needs to live up to the commitments made last December and that nothing less will do. I have told her that she needs to place the Good Friday Agreement, progress and the unique circumstances of Ireland above short-term political calculations and expediency.

Regrettably, her toxic deal with the DUP has undermined progress. The DUP has moved from a position of trying to prevent a hard border to actively promoting one. The reality is that it does not represent the majority view of citizens in the North who voted to remain; they opposed Brexit. Those in the DUP cannot be allowed to dictate the pace of Brexit and undermine our agreements that have delivered so much for Ireland and Britain. I hope that last evening, in the course of his conversation with Ms Arlene Foster, the Taoiseach made these points to her.

When he travels to Brussels tomorrow, there will be an onus on him to defend and promote an all-Ireland view and to insist that commitments made are commitments honoured. He told us last December that we had a cast-iron guarantee in respect of Ireland. Nothing less than that will do. Nothing less than that will be acceptable. I hope the Taoiseach brings that message clearly to the European Council tomorrow. Can he confirm for the House that no withdrawal agreement will be struck without a legally binding and operable backstop to protect Irish interests?

I can confirm that there will be no withdrawal agreement without a legally operable and legally binding backstop which assures us that there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. That has been the Government's position since the referendum. That is our position. We have not departed from it and we do not intend to do so. We should not forget that the commitment given to us by the UK Government, which is in black and white in a report published jointly by the UK and the EU, says that there would have to be a legally operable backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement and that it would have to apply unless and until an alternative solution is found. All we are asking is for the UK to honour the commitments it has already made in black and white in the year gone by. I am sure a country like the UK, with its proud history, would want to do no less than honour the commitments it made in black and white and in writing during the course of this year.

The deadline has always been October. If one reads the guidelines from the European Council and if one reads what I have said in this Chamber since last March, if not before, one will see that the deadline has always been October. Of course there is a risk that it may slip. We indicated at the last summit in Salzburg that it may be necessary to hold a special summit in November to sign off on a withdrawal agreement. If it slips further, a summit is already scheduled for December. The deadline is October and that has not changed.

Significant progress has been made. The withdrawal agreement provides for the financial settlement. The money the UK will pay the EU to meet its obligations before it leaves is broadly agreed. We also have agreement on the rights of EU citizens who will continue to live in the UK and the rights of UK citizens who will continue to live in other parts of the EU. We have broad agreement on a transition period. It will run until the end of 2020, which will give businesses and citizens time to prepare for the permanent changes which will take place thereafter. We have agreement on the common travel area, which is of great importance for Irish and British citizens. It allows us to travel freely between Britain and Ireland. It allows us to live, work, study and access housing, healthcare and education in each other's countries as though we were citizens of both. Other EU citizens will not have this right after Brexit. We have yet to reach agreement on the detail of the Irish protocol, which is also known as the backstop, and on the text of the future relationship that will exist between the EU and the UK after the transition period. There is still quite a gap there and quite a good bit of work to be done.

While I accept all of that, it would be a mistake to create the impression that the matters which need to be agreed in respect of the Irish protocol or the backstop are simply matters of detail. The truth is that we are approaching crunch time. It is decision time. The British Prime Minister has a big historic call to make. She can decide to side with the hard-line Brexiteers and the DUP and - by accident or design - crash Britain out of Europe with all of the consequences that might follow. Alternatively, she can choose to do the right thing by Ireland by sticking to the commitments mentioned by the Taoiseach, which were freely entered into. The Taoiseach should be in no doubt that the forces which are now looking for a Brexit at any cost, regardless of the consequences for Ireland, are vociferous and strong and have to be faced down. Can the Taoiseach tell us whether there will be a special summit in November?

Is that decision made? The Taoiseach seems to be accepting that the October deadline will not be reached. I agree with him on that score. What of a no-deal scenario? How prepared is the Government for that terrible vista?

A decision on whether there will be a special summit in November has not yet been taken. A date is pencilled into our diaries in case it is necessary, but the decision that we made in Salzburg was that we would only have a special summit in November if decisive progress was made in October. I cannot say at the moment that decisive progress has been made, but that is something that will play out over the next couple of days in Brussels. A decision will be made on whether to have a November summit when we can determine whether that is necessary. We will not be having a summit for the sake of it. If we have a summit in November, it will be to conclude a withdrawal agreement, including a backstop on Ireland.

In terms of preparations for no deal, even though I strongly believe that a no-deal scenario is unlikely, we are stepping up our preparations for that scenario. We had a detailed discussion at Cabinet today on Brexit and on those preparations, and that includes the hiring of customs officials and veterinary inspectors, preparing legislation, IT systems and preparations to install physical infrastructure in our ports and our airports, but not along the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.