Irish Europe Minister Thomas Byrne told Times Radio’s John Pienaar…

“I’m a lawyer by profession. And I know, countries such as Britain, which is not a rogue state complies with its international obligations. It’s a basic facet of a Western democracy. So the idea that a Western democracy would not comply with with its international agreements. And when this first started being discussed, when we didn’t turn to markets, that we were going to break international law in a limited specific way. Myself, and particularly other lawyers that I know on the European side, absolutely shocked and horrified. Countries such as Britain would do this, and ultimately, they didn’t do it. And now we have it again. And I ultimately don’t believe that Britain will do that. I think it values its international reputation. Quite frankly, people are scratching their heads around Europe. But how can you do this?”