Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

By way of a follow-up, firstly I meant to preface my own remarks by commending Mr. Maroš Šefovi for both his patience and perseverance. He has found a solution but I do not think it is one that will not necessarily have issues in the future. One instance that was put to me last week was if a construction company in Northern Ireland wanted to bid for a contract with the Department of Education in the Republic and imports steel, without tariffs, into Northern Ireland. That steel can then move into the Republic without any checks or balances, undercutting any potential bidder in the Republic for the same contract. How will these issues be addressed? Even the issue of a company in Northern Ireland importing steel from Wales within the single UK market without steel tariffs, and then a company in the Republic buying it in Northern Ireland without tariffs as part of the EU Single Market, would be a distortion of trade as well. Maybe the detail is too fine and granular to have been thought out yet but there are issues that will arise in the outworking of this agreement.