In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack.

The European Union argues that we should be subject to rules of the club that we have left.

The precondition is the level playing field.

We can deliver a real Brexit that achieves our objectives.

But if there is not a deal, we still need the Irish protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain. protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain.

Hello and welcome to Brexit Republic, RTE's weekly podcast on Brexit.

I'm Tony Connolly, RTE's Europe editor in Brussels.

And I'm Colimo Munggown, RTE's deputy foreign editor, back in Dublin from a six-month exile in Kildare. Each week, Brexit Republic brings you all the latest developments from London,

Brussels, and from here in Dublin. This week, a chink of light or a false dawn. There's a thing called

optimism that is possibly stalking the corridors of Whitehall in Brussels. We look at what possible compromise there could be on the vexed question of state aid,

and if that might unlock an overall deal by the end of the month.

Not so fast. Fisheries is proving to be as difficult as ever,

with the so-called group of eight coastal states issuing a blunt warning to Michelle Barnier

not to compromise on European access to UK waters.

And why the issue of an EU presence in Belfast is back on the agenda

as both sides grapple with the ongoing controversy over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

But first Tony, Charles Michel, the President of the European Council,

was in Dublin during the week. He was meeting the Taoiseach Mihal Martin and they came out of Farmy House,

the building former home of the Guinness family, where a lot of government business and conferences and the like is done.

He made a lengthy statement outside.

...