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EU AND UK leaders are expected to hold talks today in a bid to resolve the Northern Ireland Protocol amid growing speculation that a deal could be reached in the coming days after months of discord.
The Protocol, part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, ensured the free movement of goods between the Republic and Northern Ireland by operating trade checks at the Irish sea.
The DUP has demanded significant changes and has been preventing the formation of a government in Northern Ireland since elections last May as leverage.
The unionist party wants to remove the oversight of the European Court of Justice from Northern Ireland but the EU says the North’s ability to sell freely into the European single market depends on the operation of EU rules in the region.
Today, we’re asking you: Should trade checks remain between Britain and Northern Ireland?
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Currently checks on agricultural goods and foodstuffs arriving into GB are very lax. Without proper checks on goods arriving into N.Ireland from GB there could be horrendous consequences for the whole island of Ireland
It doesn’t matter as the DUP will never SHARE power with SF first minister
@Mick Murp: neither would most sane people.
If Northern Ireland want to remain part of Britain, then they should be subject to the rules for Britain. Simples.
@Anna Carr: And a hard border with customs posts between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Simples.
@Anna Carr: A simple solution to a complex problem that would create many more problems than it would solve, sounds about right.
@Nick Caffrey: The Good Friday Aggrement makes that impossible and a hard border brings us back to a bad time.
No checks required. I need the cheaper proper coal kerosene and booze to make life a little bit comfortable.
@Paul Merriman: Don’t forget the white loyalist marching powder. Definitely no checks!
They made their bed. No expectations.
Keep the protocol, if for no other reason than the DUP are stuck with no plan B and look daft when they do inevitably back down. They longer they go depriving their electorate the worse it will be for them.
@Neil A Campbell: the DUP has to be given a face-saving way out, the notion that screwing them over is in our interests is naive. They represent nearly half the population of NI, their voice is as important as the nationalist voice.
I despair of ever seeing Ireland United when we can’t seem to get past thinking that ethnic cleansing is the route there.
@John Mulligan: 21.3% of last election is a far way of from half the population on north.
@John Mulligan: can you pout to facts behind this ‘ ethnic cleansing’ myth
@John Mulligan: can you point to facts behind this ‘ ethnic cleansing’ myth
@John Mulligan: The DUP represents less than 22% of the population of NI and this latest debacle is likely to reduce that even further.
While former DUP voters are never going to vote for Sinn Fein, they are likely to vote for other parties in the future, especially the Alliance party, especially those in business and the younger generation that want to build a life in the present and future, instead of living in the past.
Definitely yes
They decided to get out and they have. The Unionist parties wanted and still want to break the Good Friday Aggrement. Everything that the EU and Irish government has done is facilitating that.
The other issue is that UK food, health and safety checks have dropped off the scale and we do not want our farming industry destroyued by this.
Also the medical standards have dropped as well in relation to medication safety.
The are a third country and NI gets the bounce out of having a foot in both camps but not the rest of the UK.
It is the Scots I feel for they wanted to stay in.
The DUP really are the turkeys that voted for Christmas.
Plan A- checks between NI and UK.
Plan B – checks between NI and ROI.
Plan C – Checks between ROI and EU.
Plan D – No checks.
Plan E – Create a new political entity Scotti consisting of Scotland and NI and let them have a new poll whether or not to rejoin the EU. If they rejoin, have checks between England and Scotland.
Plan F – Drink lots of Heineken.
All have consequences….
The most difficult border lines are in people’s heads.
@Garreth Byrne: that’s deep man, real deep
The green and red channel idea has been out there for at least a year, but only now is it being seriously considered by both sides. What a huge waste of time there has been over this.
have your say