Mr. Glyn Roberts:

I think there is a plethora of models. I know that some good work has been done by Dr. Lee McGowan at Queen's University. He has done some work with the Northern Ireland Independent Council on Europe, of which I am a member and of which Dr. McDonnell is vice chairman. There are many different models ranging from the Isle of Man to Norway, Sweden and so on. There is so much information and so many reports, a lot of them analyse the problem but they do not give us solutions. We are making the point that we need to focus on solutions. What do special circumstances look like? For Northern Ireland, it to ensure that there is no hard Border, that we have full access to the Single Market, that the EU nationals who are employed in Northern Ireland will be able to remain and that we still will be able to have freedom of movement across the EU. These are the end destinations but we need to focus on the solutions to get us there, while achieving a balance with the United Kingdom at the same time.

Let me repeat that we cannot have a hard border to the rest of the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, in Northern Ireland this has become skewed in the sense that if one speaks of special status, one is considered to be against the Union. I think we must have a bit more maturity in the context that business has a key role to play in the debate on Brexit and must be part of the solution. We have had a number of meetings this week with the Secretary of State of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills in the United Kingdom. We are hoping to have more engagement with the Department for Exiting the European Union as well. For us, it is not about constitutions or politics, it is about how we can get our economy moving forward. There will be disadvantages. Whatever way we dress this up, we will be at a significant disadvantage as a result of Brexit. I hope I will be proved wrong about that but I struggle to see anything positive coming out of Brexit in the short term. I accept the result. I think we would have been in a much stronger position had Wales voted to remain. There would have been a strong access between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in terms of the UK Government, but that was not the case. The issues of Scotland are very different from those relating to Northern Ireland. Let us not forget about the EU Single Market. In the Single Market, there are 500 million consumers and 26 million businesses. The fact that in a very short period we will be outside what is, from any objective standpoint, the largest such market in the world is not good. To be outside the customs union is not good.

I have not mentioned the significant challenge that the Great Repeal Bill, which was introduced last week. I do not see much great about it to be honest.