A government minister has rejected the suggestion that Ireland is “in denial” over the reality of what a crash-out Brexit will mean for the Irish Border.

Influential news organisation the Financial Times has reported a nervousness in Europe over a perceived reluctance to detail of how the Irish government plans to protect the single market in the event of a hard Brexit.

A senior diplomat is quoted as saying: “Our friends in Ireland are still in a state of denial. We are not talking about building a wall, but we need to preserve the integrity of the single market”.

The diplomat went on to say some in Dublin are beginning to understand, but others are less clear.

However, Minister for European Affairs, Helen McEntee rejected the suggestion.

Speaking to the Floating Voter - Independent.ie’s political podcast - she said she always receives a message of support from her colleagues across Europe who say “we’re behind you..we know you can’t put up any border”.

“I don’t think so and this is the whole point of it. We know how bad it would actually be if that is the case and that’s not a denial. We know how hard and how difficult it would be to protect the invisible border but what that possibly means for the rest of the island, what that possibly means for certain industry and sectors,” she said.

Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with a group of people from the Border region in Dublin before a meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The Meath East TD said this was not an effort to convince Ms Merkel to stand over her support for the Irish position.

“It’s just about making sure that she has an opportunity to meet these people and for them to know that she supports them,” she said.

Pressed on why there were not yet solid proposals on how to avoid a hard border in a no deal scenario Ms McEntee that things had not moved into that space yet.

“We’re in conversations. The discussions with the Commission have started to increase more in terms of what that might look like. But there are no concrete proposals because we are not in that space yet,” she said.

Ireland needs to stay focused on the fact that Britain wants a deal she added.