Ms McEntee said a set deadline for the Brexit transitional arrangement would provide business and citizens with the "assurance" they needed. 

The Irish Europe minister said: "I think we need to put some sort of timeline on us. I think business, particularly in the UK, but also Ireland and the rest of the EU need some sort of certainty and need a timeline what that time is going to be.

"We’ve seen in the past 18 months since the Brexit referendum that there have been delays, we haven’t been able to maybe necessarily meet deadlines at the same time.

"I do think we have to try and work towards some sort of a deadline again to give business certainty, to give people assurance that they know what it is that they’re planning for."

Ms McEntee said the EU27 are expected to kickstart talks on a possible transitional arrangement after a crucial vote to move Brexit negotiations on to trade.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Today, she continued: "We haven’t actually agreed yet so obviously, following on from today – assuming that absolutely everything goes to plan and I have no reason to believe that it shouldn’t – we are going to Christmas and into the new year.

"The agreement which we reached last week will then be transformed into a treaty that member states themselves will start discussing the actual transition period – what that will look like, what kind of timeframe it needs."

But rumours on the terms of the transition deal suggest the European Union is planning to offer to maintain existing condition such as British single market membership – which would ultimately strip the UK of its voting rights in EU institutions.

Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, who serves on the European Parliament Brexit Steering Committee, said it was "ambitious" to think Britain could negotiate a deal in less than the estimated two-year-long transition.

Mr Lamberts said: "If you look at how long it took to negotiate CETA – the trade agreement with Canada – it was ten years.

"I’m not saying we can’t do better because CETA could be the blueprint and so we could just copy-paste what has been done on CETA in many cases. Two years is pretty ambitious. I think we should get on with the work.

The Belgian politician said the Brexit transition deal will maintain the current status quo while effectively taking away the UK's rights to make decisions in the EU.

Mr Lamberts said: "Well, I think a transition is fairly simple to negotiate since it means that things stay as they are today with one exception.

"That is the British seat at the EU table disappears. No British MEPs, no British members of the European Council, so no British minister or Prime Minister at the table of the Council and that means that the United Kingdom is a bit in the situation of Norway – where it is a member in all but name."