Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor McCrudden for a very stimulating and challenging contribution. It occurs to me that lawyers are sometimes inclined to look at things as they are rather than as they might be. If a flexible and imaginative solution to Ireland's difficulties were to be found, it could be the subject of a mini-treaty to enable it to go outside the constraints of existing EU law without forming a precedent for other things or requiring the European Court of Justice to go along with it, so to speak. If something is done at treaty level, or even at mini-treaty level in the form of a protocol to be added to the treaties, that is it: the court in Luxembourg more or less has to accept it and live with it as a treaty court. It occurs to me that we should not be too afraid of the European Court of Justice because if there is an appetite for real flexibility, this can be done. I accept that it would involve unanimity, which is never a very happy thing, but it should be doable if there is nothing much to antagonise any of the other 27 member states.

I was interested in what Professor McCrudden had to say about the common travel area. I have been banging a drum at this committee by saying I do not think this is a major problem. I understand that the UK authorities hope to maintain visa-free travel for EU citizens travelling to the UK. The UK intends to put up its defences, so to speak, in areas such as employment, health and welfare, in respect of which there will be all sorts of internal checks.

It will, however, allow any EU national to get on a train from Paris to London without asking him or her to apply for a visa or to pass through a formal immigration control.

What I really want to ask about is goods. Whether the special status is within, subject to or part of the customs union or analogous to being part of the customs unions, the east-west axis is the much easier one to control, subject to certain things. I made the point this morning that one does not have to have a single solution for all areas. Agriculture and agricultural products are one thing while pharmaceuticals and aircraft parts are another. Some things are far more easily monitored in their movements than others. One can have quite a flexible approach which does not involve stopping every truck wherever it crosses whatever line.

I wish to ask Professor McCrudden to elaborate on a couple of matters. What is his sense of the Conservative Party ideology that it wants a homogenous United Kingdom and that anything going down the line of a special status for Northern Ireland is anathema to that basic value? Professor McCrudden drew a distinction which I drew this morning. Special status within the EU would get the Conservative Party's hair standing on end but special status in respect of the EU is a slightly less challenging concept. Can Professor McCrudden comment on those propositions?