Brexit means Brexit and we're going to make a success of it.

We have got a cast iron assurance and a guarantee from the British government.

The particular problems around the Irish border are being used politically to try to frustrate Brexit.

Northern Ireland must leave the European Union on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland would form part of our customs territory.

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

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

I'm Sean Whelan, RTE's London correspondent, who's actually in Dublin this election weekend.

And I'm Colom O'Monggaon, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor, also in Dublin.

And each week, Brexit Republic assesses all the latest Brexit developments in Brussels, London and Dublin.

One week since Brexit Day and both sides have been limbering up with some decidedly acerbic barbs being traded between

London and Brussels about the upcoming trade negotiations. Boris Johnson took to the neoclassical

splendour of the Greenwich Naval College to declare that the UK was a sovereign equal and would

not remain tethered to EU rules and would become instead a free trading titan.

But in the same breath, he said Britain would be quite happy

to be subject to trade barriers by way of WTO tariffs

if the EU didn't play ball.

Meanwhile, Michel Barnier launched the EU's draft

negotiating blueprint in Brussels,

warning that the UK would have to abide by a level playing field.

And he said if the UK wanted progress on the free trade talks, it would have to implement the Irish protocol and prepare for those checks and controls in the Irish Sea.

We'll assess all the key issues as both sides set out their stalls ahead of the trade

...