In November 2017, the EU Parliament commissioned the EU's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs to study the Irish border issue and the result is Smart Border 2.0 for Avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland for Customs control and the free movement of persons.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/596828/IPOL_STU(2017)596828_EN.pdf
Everyone knows that politics is an ideological as well as a practical affair. Since practical issues can be dealt with, one can only wonder why, unless for ideological reasons, our Remain government and the EU leadership are using the Irish border to try to thwart our departure.