Lord Kerr:

Yes, I agree with Deputy Haughey. Speaking personally, I think that the Government's view that it would be easy to replace our close trading relationship with our neighbours with new relationships with Asia, the United States and Australasia is a bit of a mirage. There is an inexorable rule of trade, particularly with traded goods, that distance matters. I do think we are likely to find, if we end up causing difficulties in Northern Ireland and between Northern Ireland and the Republic, that there will be additional difficulties in securing closer free trade arrangements with, for example, the United States. If there is no free trade agreement and that, in consequence, complicates the problems of working out the details of the implementation of the protocol, I think that we would go through a rather bad patch that might be quite protracted. So, I very much agree with the Deputy but then I used to be a diplomat so I believe that agreement is, on the whole, a good thing and should be honoured.