Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is there a high level of co-operation there? If we go back to the incidence of foot-and-mouth disease, the 32-county approach saved the country. I remember the outbreak as a child in the late 1960s when we had to put our feet into a bath of water with disinfectant. We have the advantage of being an island and everyone gets the logic of having the checks at the ports, bar anyone who does not want to get it. That is where it has to happen. Can we satisfy ourselves that the checks that are happening this week will protect this State in terms of food safety and animal health? There is movement back and forwards across the Border, rightly so. Effectively, it is a single economy now – an all-Ireland economy. Are the checks effective enough?