Lord Hain:

One of the problems has been, to use Boris Johnson's phrase, getting Brexit done in a hell of a rush right at the end. That is why it was a shock to a lot of unionists and loyalists when suddenly they found themselves facing complex arrangements for Irish Sea trade. I wonder whether colleagues in Dublin feel that greater flexibility on the dates might be a good thing. We have had statements to that effect - encouraging ones. It is not to allow London to escape it obligations under the protocol, which are clear and to which they have signed up, but to allow a bit of room to sort some of these problems out. To be frank, if we got the Good Friday Agreement and the St. Andrews Agreement, sorting out the protocol is relatively minor by comparison. I do not mean that in any kind of triumphalist sense having been involved in the latter one, but those were "it will never happen" moments. Any good negotiation, I am sure, should be able to sort these problems out within the protocol.