Mr. Chris Hazzard:

One of the great benefits of European PEACE funding was the social value that arose from its not being Irish or British funding but third-party money. The same applied to the North American aid that came through Atlantic Philanthropies. If the British Government does step in to replace some of these moneys, there will be a certain oxymoronic quality to its supplying peace money.

I am worried we might exacerbate the difficulties arising from the seesaw economy along the Border. We will see this Christmas that various regional towns on the northern side of the Border will benefit from the current sterling exchange rate, whereas in recent years it was the other way around. That exacerbates the problems of living in a peripheral region. As a representative for south Down, I see it all the time. There are problems, too, in the fishing sector. Plenty of people in that industry gleefully embraced the leave Europe campaign because of the red tape and bureaucracy issues, but now they are seeing some of the complexities on the other side of that and the hard lines that cannot be crossed. We have talked about flagging up some of the opportunities that may present. We spoke about the fact the South will be the only English-speaking part of the EU and that some companies, especially in North America, may see in this an increased opportunity to have one foot in the sterling zone and one foot in the eurozone. However, the seesawing economy represents the greatest uncertainty for people living along the Border and I worry about the local communities that will suffer as a result.