Sir, – The UK foreign secretary has argued that the government has “a duty to fix the problems of the NI protocol”. However, just what are these problems? The UK Office for National Statistics, in a regional analysis, has reported that NI’s gross domestic product was the highest in the UK. The experts involved in the exercise have explicitly credited NI’s continued access to barrier free trade with the EU and the UK as the key driver in attaining this result. Belfast Harbour has bounced back to a £34 million profit, with the harbour authorities saying that trading has been “aided by the NI protocol”. In the retail sector, food and drink bosses in NI are quoted as insisting that “the NI protocol is working for us”. NI milk producers export 900 million litres of milk to the Republic each year and the NI Dairy Council has said that “the protocol is working for us and it allows our trade flows to continue”. Any outstanding trading difficulties in other sectors can easily be resolved on the basis of the detailed proposals from the EU which were tabled last October in order to better facilitate the movement of goods between NI and Great Britain.
Ms Truss has also stated that the NI protocol is “undermining the Good Friday Agreement”. As far as this issue is concerned, one need look no further than the actual terms of the Belfast Agreement itself. The fact is that the guiding principles in the agreement of self-determination and consent are paramount in relation to any possible constitutional change. Put simply, the constitutional link between the NI and the rest of the UK is not under threat from the protocol. Indeed, because the Belfast Agreement binds the UK government on several points of law, it has, de facto, become part of the UK constitution. It could, therefore, be argued that, because the UK government now intends to set aside the NI protocol, in complete disregard for the wishes of NI voters, as expressed in the recent election and without their consent, it is the NI Protocol Bill that has the real potential to undermine the Belfast Agreement and, ultimately, the UK constitution.
Accordingly, it would appear that opposition to the NI protocol is not based on economic or constitutional issues but is essentially a smoke-screen for an attempt by the DUP, aided and abetted by the UK government, to gain political advantage.The contribution from the leader of the DUP, during the second reading of the NI Protocol Bill at Westminster, has indicated quite clearly that his party intends to play the long game in order to avoid a Sinn Féin First Minister taking office. Despite the Bill having now passed its second stage, the DUP has not made any commitment whatsoever to return to Stormont. The Bill may well languish in Westminster for some considerable time and after six months, the NI Secretary will be obliged, under law, to name a date for a second election, when the DUP will hope to recover their electoral losses on the basis of their feigned opposition to the protocol. If the Bill does become law within the time period, there is every chance that the protocol will be damaged to the extent that a hard border on the island of Ireland will ensue, something the DUP will be quite comfortable with, given their historic opposition to the Belfast Agreement itself. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
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Terenure,
Dublin 12.