A PRO-Brexit MP has said the Republic of Ireland will have to pay for a physical border with Northern Ireland if no trade deal is struck.
Kate Hoey, a Labour MP for Vauxhall south London and originally from Co Antrim, made the comments while speaking on BBC Radio 4 earlier today.
Criticising the Irish Government's approach to the issue of a border, she said: "Why don't the Irish Government actually become more positive about this and start looking at solutions with their closest neighbour and partner.
"After all, we are a friend of the Republic of Ireland, the relations have never been as good and yet on this issue it seems like they're more concerned with keeping the rest of the EU satisfied than actually looking at concrete, positive proposals.
"We're not the ones who are going to be putting up the physical border," she said. "If it ends up with a no deal, we won't be putting up the border, they'll have to pay for it because it doesn't need to happen."
But Fine Gael Senator Neale Richmond defended the Irish Government's stance: "We have been very positive, we have laid out from the outset how we would like things to go and how we'd want certainty.
"The British government have been very, very late and have continually changed their position."
"We haven't made the decision for the United Kingdom to leave the EU - you're making the decision, a decision that affects us far more than anyone else on the continent," he added.
The Labour MP said both sides in the Brexit negotiations should look to Switzerland and Norway, which are outside the EU but have close trading relationships with it, for solutions to the Irish border issue.
"A lot of the technology, at the Swiss border and in Norway, is done actually away from the border - and of course the Prime Minister has said that she doesn't want cameras at the border."
The EU has given Prime Minister Theresa May until December 4 to come up with further proposals on issues including the border, the Brexit divorce bill and citizens' rights, if European leaders are to agree to moving on to trade talks.
Ms Hoey's comments come after UKIP MEP Gerard Batten launched a scathing Twitter attack on Ireland, calling the country a 'subservient client state of EU' and 'the weakest kid in the playground sucking up to the EU bullies.'
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