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It would be good to see Dublin acknowledge that the logical corollary of “the backstop is needed to avoid a border” is “without the backstop there will be a border”. Refusing to do so just makes a border more likely by encouraging ERG types to believe that backstop is unnecessary
Which makes no deal more likely, which then leads to the return of a hard border...
Waffling on the issue also risks fuelling Irish euroscepticism in the event that we have no deal and a border, by giving comfort to those who would then suggest that with a bit of good will a border would, magically, be unnecessary. ‘Brussels’ would then be blamed.
Varadkar oversold what had been achieved in December 2017: his one big mistake in my view. Perhaps that makes it more difficult for him to acknowledge that border controls will be required if there is no deal and the U.K. doesn’t rapidly return to the negotiating table.
But that’s too bad and the lack of clarity has not helped at all. So I hope this story is right...
Finally, it isn't just livestock that has to be sorted. All of the questions that @WeyandSabine asked HMG last year would have to be asked of the Irish government, should HMG renege on its repeated backstop promises. 
@WeyandSabine There's nothing fair about any of this. The way that Irish interests, not to mention Northern Irish interests, have been ignored by London is shameful. But ignoring reality won't help.
