Mr. Francie Molloy:

I thank the Minister for his presentation. It is very important that we hear at first hand about the different parts of the negotiations. Living in a Border county, I know the difficulties of trade and people moving back and forth across it for work and other reasons and for businesses that are expanding, North and South. We can view it purely in financial terms, which is very important, but we can also view it in human rights terms. While British Ministers have said they want to ensure those rights are not taken away, some of the speeches before the referendum concentrated on the issues of human rights - and within these, workers' rights - and to reduce them in the context of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The members of the new communities coming into my area have fears about whether they can stay to work.

Businesses are also worried as to whether their workers will stay. The number of passport forms that I am signing has increased dramatically because people are trying to find some stability.

It should not be a question of hard or soft borders but, rather, what we are doing to ensure that there are no borders. We must, given the fact that we have done away with borders, find a long-term solution to this which involves no borders. This affects the farming community in particular. The movement of people back and forth across the Border is one issue, but the movement of animals and livestock is also a difficulty. The pig industry in Cookstown, for example, will be dramatically affected if livestock cannot move across the Border in the normal way. The devaluation of sterling has had a big effect on that industry already. These are the issues we must look at. The main point is that any long-term solution must ensure that there are no borders of any kind in the future.