Mr. John Sheridan:

It has not been looked into. It opens up many possibilities. It leads back to a question of who does the certification on the product. It leads back to a question of whether there is going to be a system where farmers are paid basic payment in Europe in one part of Ireland while they can still trade agriculturally in the other part, but the same supports are not there for the directives according to which they must produce. That would probably create a bigger minefield.

On the 17% of companies forecasting job losses and the 11% planning to potentially relocate, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the North, with 700 to 1,000 jobs, has already got a foothold in the South. The reason it is doing that is that if it is sitting in the North and out of Europe, then it cannot give that European certification and standard that its customers require. If it cannot do that, and if there are then checks on the product as it crosses either a visible Border or whatever else, then that could affect its vacuum packing, its refrigeration and its time limit in getting to the customer. The customer would quite likely then go ahead and say that it is not working. The company would have to move the whole production unit into the South and into Europe to keep that business.

On the same token, when "customs union" is said versus "free market", one has to remember that the EU has to protect its markets. How would the customs union agreement in one place and a free market in another work? How would the Chinese feel about Northern milk coming down into the South to be processed and put into baby food powder and then sent back to China? What would it have to say about that? Customers could be lost all over the place. I think it would be haywire.

On this migration of people over a porous Border, the farm I am on is now part of the geopark. It is part of what is called a "stairway to heaven". There is a stairway the whole way up to the international Border. At present, 24,000 people walk that stairway each year. That stairway goes up onto the international Border that covers five, seven, eight miles of mountain and heath. Who is going to know who is walking up or down those stairs? Is there going to be a customs post or immigration check at the end of that walk? After that, there are 330 more walks.