Mr. Neil McDonnell:

I can give a parochial view of where we are now. The Windsor Framework means that a dispensation has been given to Northern Ireland whereby it is both within the Single Market and the UK. I find some of the stuff I hear from UK politicians ironic. Their response to Northern Ireland's position is a great advertisement for remaining in the EU. It would be a pity for businesses in Northern Ireland and the Republic if that were to be undermined for theological political regions, if I can put it that way. A great many of our businesses trade in finished goods and foods or intermediate products. I am not going to presume to lecture anyone in Dáil Éireann about what happens milk on the island. It goes over the Border and comes back. The same is true of some alcohol products. If anything were to occur to disrupt that, it would hurt the people on both sides of the Border. However, in the longer run, we are going to have to understand not only the commercial relations either side of the Border but at the point where the political dispensation changes in Northern Ireland, we must understand what would happen. You can get funny results with this sort of thing. Similar issues have arisen before. I served in the Defence Forces in Cyprus for a year in the 1990s when the political situation there did not look dissimilar to that in Ireland.

There was a large entity Greek Cypriot entity that wanted reunion with the north of the island and a Turkish Cypriot minority behind the buffer zone that did not. When the Annan plan was put together by the UN for the reunification of the island in anticipation of Cyprus's accession to the EU, bizarrely enough, it was a complete reversal of the political norms. The Greek majority voted against reunification and the Turks voted for reunification because they saw that as their way into the EU as opposed to the Turkish mainland, which is just a part of the customs union. You could see situations in which taxpayers in the Republic might consider themselves disadvantaged so these are the long-run issues it is necessary for the body politic to address. You can see the way a really simplistic narrative developed over Brexit in the UK, which people spent a lot of time researching. Apparently people looked up "What is the EU?" in the UK. We do not want that sort of thing happening in or around a border poll that results in a majority for reunification because that could lead to all sorts of problems.