The Minister for European Affairs insists there can be no time limit placed on the backstop in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
Helen McEntee says it is necessary to protect peace on the island which has prospered since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.
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British MPs roundly rejected the withdrawal deal in the House of Commons and efforts are continuing in Britain to find a way of breaking the impasse over the deal.
Minister McEntee says any limit to the back stop would mean it would cease to be an insurance mechanism, telling Sky News: "To suggest that we would compromise on the Irish backstop is suggesting we would compromise on the need and the requirement to ensure that we protect the peace that we've had for the last 20 years.
"To put a unilateral clause on the backstop or to put a time limit on the backstop - it ceases to become a backstop or it ceases to be a backstop. It's not an insurance policy - it's not an insurance mechanism and that's why we need it," she added.
The UK is a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and is obligated to ensure that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.
