Mr. Paul Gibbons:

I work in environmental health and food safety regulation. I am based in Monaghan on the Border. There are concerns along the Border and when there is a price differential in products on either side of the Border there are people willing to exploit it. We have concerns over genetically modified food, chlorinated chicken and a raft of other products that may be legal in the UK and, by virtue of being allowed on the northern side of the Border, could find their way into the Republic and into the European food chain. That is one of the main challenges for us as the regulator and, while a backstop has been committed to which will mean an alignment of standards on the island, it will depend on how the negotiations go over the next few weeks. If the backstop is not implemented there may well be a hard Brexit, with all the associated threats to food safety on the island. This is the main threat to the areas along the Border after next March.