Sir John Major:

I preface this answer by saying I am not in Parliament. I preface it that way because if you are in Parliament, you get letters from and meet constituents. You are in constant communication with people and you pick up a view that is a good deal wider than simply your own. I am a private citizen now and I no longer get that. I declined to go to the House of Lords, so I am not in either House of Parliament. However, because of the publicity that has been given to the dispute with the European Union over the protocol, it is probably higher in people’s minds than it was in the early 1990s. That may seem very strange when thinking of the violence in the early 1990s, but I suppose if something goes on for a long time, it becomes background. The violence had gone on for a very long time and it was background. In the early days of the Troubles, if something happened, it was headline news. As the years moved on, it slipped down the news agenda a bit. It may be that the profile is a little higher now. Certainly, due to the fact we do not have a functioning Executive in Stormont, which is important to the South as well as the North, and there is this dispute that is carrying on over the protocol, probably the profile is a little higher. I understand that the relatively new Secretary of State in the North is keen to develop close relationships.

There are, as Deputy Conway-Walsh said, parts of the Good Friday Agreement, like the cross-Border agreement, that are not implemented and are not working at the moment. It may be a good time for a little flexibility on both sides that can lead to some deals. I go back to the point I made a few moments ago. To get deals, you have to talk and you have to listen. That is the only way in which we will get them.