Mr. Mickey Brady:

I thank Dr. Morrow for his presentation. One of the fundamental issues, of course, apart from the desire to trigger Article 50, is that the Tories themselves do not seem to know how they will progress at this point. If we look at the current crisis in the North, the lack of parity of esteem has been one of the major factors in bringing that about, apart from RHI.

As someone who represents a Border constituency, I absolutely agree with Dr. Morrow's analysis on a hard Brexit. The people of my generation remember a hard border, and I am talking about the time before militarisation in 1969 and 1970. I believe that, deep in the psyche of people of my generation, it would be asked what the Good Friday Agreement has been all about because this would bring us back to the 1950s and 1960s, when there was a hard border.

That needs to be addressed. Dr. Morrow mentioned the special status being almost an integral part of the Agreement and an articulated special status in terms of the SNP. Does he think those unanswered questions could be sorted out through the federalisation of the UK?

A retail analyst recently said on the radio that, for instance, Tesco Ireland can ship goods anywhere in the Thirty-two Counties at the moment but if Brexit resulted in a hard border, every product on the lorries would have to be itemised to establish where they were made. That would make life impossible. Therein lies part of the difficulty.

Dr. McDonnell referred to gushing responses. I visit Westminster on a regular basis and speak to all the parties. There is a deliberate desire not to understand the complexities of the situation in the Six Counties. One only has to look at who has been sent to oversee the process - Mr. Brokenshire and Mr. Chris Hopkins. I have not met Mr. Brokenshire but I have met Mr. Hopkins. There is a total lack of understanding of the situation. The fear for many of us is the North will be used as a bargaining chip in the Brexit negotiations or not properly considered and that we will not be very much an integral part of the negotiations because we had a First Minister who went against the democratic deficit apparent in the vote in the North. We are not all in it together because, as Dr. McDonnell said, it is all about the south east of England; it is not about the North and farmers. Jeffrey Donaldson was telling us before the referendum that he had spoken to George Osborne and it would all be hunky-dory. Out of every £100 small farmers in my constituency get, £87 comes from Europe. That will all be replaced. George Osborne is no longer in office and we have no guarantees. It is a big issue.