Dr. Alasdair McDonnell:

If Mr. Fearon or I were in Brussels tomorrow morning or this afternoon and got to some of those people, my experience is that the first thing they would ask is what we want them to do. I am as enthusiastic as Mr. Fearon about opposing Brexit and undoing as best we can the damage it will do to Border communities, but the dilemma is that we must have a practical proposal they can work on. In the fluidity and vagueness that exists, unless there is a clear cut proposal, we cannot challenge or question it.

The British situation at the moment is bedlam and confusion. While everybody is saying they do not want a hard Border, the common-sense consensus is that free movement of people cannot be controlled without some sort of controls, and controls mean some sort of hardness in the Border. The same applies to customs, the Single Market and so on. If Mr. Fearon or I were sitting in Commissioner Hogan's office, what suggestions would Mr. Fearon like us to put forward? I do not come here as a Member of the Dáil. I come here from the North. What suggestions does he think we should put forward to alleviate-----