Professor David Phinnemore:

Politics will always get in the way but equally if we have sufficient political will we can probably overcome it. We would have to use the opportunity of the language of the EU 27 and the British Government that there are particular circumstances and it is a unique case. Therefore, we should possibly respond with more flexible, specific, bespoke and unique arrangements which see it as somewhere slightly apart albeit not radically apart. Going back to the point that Dr. Hayward made, there is a broad consensus in Northern Ireland about the desire to avoid disruption. We need to bring that language back in and play to where there is agreement, rather than where there is the level of disagreement that we have.