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Foreign minister Simon Coveney said the two sides would fail to reach an agreement in every area of the negotiation. He claimed it would be “totally realistic” to reach a deal on all 11 subjects being discussed between Michel Barnier and David Frost. But Mr Coveney said a free-trade agreement, which eliminates tariffs and quotas, is possible given the “very, very short” period of time left to strike a pact.

He said: “Very, very little progress has been made. I would be naive to say a no trade deal isn’t possible.

“But it would be such an act of self-harm and such a failure of politics, I believe politicians and governments will find a way of getting a deal.

“There are 11 different areas where there are negotiations taking place, all in parallel with each other. The idea we can get agreement on all 11 is totally unrealistic.

“What is possible, though, is a basic trade deal that avoids the introduction of tariffs and quotas, which is very important in an Irish perspective, which is what WTO trading rules would probably result in if there was no deal.”

On the eve of the next round of negotiations, Mr Coveney insisted Ireland was preparing for a complete overhaul in trading relations with Britain – including the possibility of a no deal.

He said: “I’ll bring a fairly big memo to government in relation to where Ireland is at in terms of our preparedness for whatever outcome may happen in the autumn.

“Whether it’s a worst-case scenario – which is no trade deal Brexit – or not, we have to be ready just in case or other variants of that.”

Mr Coveney said Dublin had already spent £27million on preparations for Britain’s departure from the EU’s single market and customs union.

Mr Frost, Boris Johnson’s chief trade negotiator with the EU, will hold “informal” discussions with Mr Barnier on how to break the Brexit deadlock.

Talks will run until Thursday, ahead of a full negotiating round later this month.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The talks this week are slightly more informal in nature.

“This is a chance to have some further discussions and see what progress might be made.

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“There isn’t a formal published agenda. The purpose is to see if there is more progress that can be made.”

Mr Frost will lead a small team of experts as they hope to establish how to end the impasse over issues such as the level-playing field and future access to Britain’s fishing waters.

Mr Johnson’s spokesman added: “David has been very clear there remain significant differences in areas such as what the EU calls the level-playing field.

“We continue to make the point that we are seeking a free-trade agreement based on precedent and of the kind which the EU has agreed with other friendly countries like Canada.

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“We are not looking for anything special, bespoke or unique.

“We’ve also been consistently clear that we can’t agree to a set of novel and unbalanced proposals that would bind the UK to EU law or standards or impose control over our domestic legal regimes.”

A European Commission spokesman said: “This is not a round of negotiations. The next round is the week of July 20 in London.

“What we have this week is a number of technical-level meetings between experts in what are called specialised sessions. We have meetings starting tomorrow and running until Thursday.”

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