Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister accept that the potential of a hard border is still there? This is not a tick-box exercise. A meaningful vote, which we must respect, could go either way unless we are telling the unionist community that we are going to assume the vote will pass because their view on the matter will not be taken. A Minister cannot categorically guarantee that the vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly will go in a particular direction every four years because nobody knows that. Does the Minister accept it is possible that the vote could go the other way? In that case, a two-year cooling-off period would kick in and, thereafter, Northern Ireland would exit the regulatory alignment. It is not correct to give a guarantee to this committee, or anybody living north or south of the Border, that the reimposition of a border is impossible.