Ireland sees a window of opportunity for British and European Union negotiators to make progress on a new trade deal before British legislation opposed by the EU comes into law, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Sunday.
"The EU will not negotiate under that kind of threat" that will be created once Britain's proposed Internal Market Bill enters into law, Coveney told RTE radio in an interview.
"This legislation I believe will probably get delayed... That is going to give us a window to hopefully to try and address some of these issues in a comprehensive way so we can do away with this legislation," Coveney said.
The British government said explicitly last week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed in January, when it formally left the EU.
Johnson says the new legislation is needed to clarify the Northern Ireland protocol element of the Brexit deal, to protect free trade between the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Sunday that the Withdrawal Agreement on Northern Ireland "is not a threat to the integrity of the UK", and had been agreed by the two sides to protect peace on the island of Ireland.