Professor David Phinnemore:

Particularly in the context of the absence of free movement services, insofar as if the UK does not continue to have mutual recognition of diplomas and qualifications with the EU 27 could that be pursued on a bilateral basis? At least Irish and British citizens can avail of that mutual recognition in the different jurisdictions. Seen as Ireland is not in the Schengen area, can we pursue a number of arrangements under the common travel area that allow rights to be exercised on these islands even though the British citizens may not be able to have those rights within the context of the UK-EU relationship? We need to be exploring that.

The issue of the third option or whatever it will be called was raised at the end. I agree that there is an element of kicking the can down the road here. There is a belated recognition or realisation on the part of the British Government that it simply does not have the time to put in place a future UK-EU trade relationship addressing its red lines. It cannot do it within the time before the UK leaves in March next year. The transition period, by broad consensus, will be insufficient. It therefore needs time and it is looking for that. It also finds itself in an exceptionally difficult political situation at the moment, such that it is very difficult to be able to sell the backstop to the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP. If another three or four years is created, there will be a different electoral cycle and Parliament, but my concern would be that we could get distracted, assuming the EU will buy into the presumed British proposals to use the protocol for a whole-of-UK arrangement. If the future arrangement between the UK and the EU does not address what is seen to be of fundamental importance for avoiding the hard border and allowing the Good Friday Agreement to be implemented in full, then the backstop that is currently proposed needs to be available, such that the new UK-EU relationship does not remove what is required by general consensus to meet the obligations and commitments the British entered into in December last year.