Dr. Anthony Soares:

On the question of agriculture and reassurances from the UK Government, Mr. Sheridan is correct that the UK Government has given those reassurances up to 2020, but I would like to point out that we did a report about the agri-food sector, looking at four counties along the Border specifically, prior to the EU referendum. Many of the producers referred to EU support during the research for that report. I spoke to some during the immediate run-up to the referendum, and some of those producers in Northern Ireland - from two counties in Northern Ireland on the Northern Ireland side of the Border - said that they intended to vote to leave, and having spoken to them and others after the referendum, they did indeed vote to leave. There are farmers in Northern Ireland who chose the option to leave the EU. On that reassurance up to 2020, one of the things that the agri-food sector in Northern Ireland will have to face post-2020 is that UK Government support, whatever it might be for farmers post-2020, will depend on annual budgets, so every year, farmers will have to lobby the Government to secure financial support on a yearly basis. Currently, under CAP, there is a seven-year budget, so farmers can plan what they are going to do on a medium-term basis since they are guaranteed those funds. That is going to be a major challenge going forward.

The UK's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Mr. David Davis, said in the House of Commons that the possibility of an increase in cross-Border smuggling is perhaps the price that the UK has to pay to maintain a frictionless Border. We think that is potentially a negative perspective.

Yes, the majority of people in Northern Ireland opted to remain, but we also have to realise that a significant minority actually voted to leave the EU.

We have to address the issue of maintaining cohesion within Northern Ireland between communities and between sections of the population who had different approaches to the referendum, and also to maintain those relationships on a cross-Border basis. One of the potential threats that we are facing is that communities on both sides of the Border will start to look away from each other once again, which is something that we thought we had overcome because there has been much more communication between communities. As Ms. Taillon pointed out earlier, we have considered on various occasions that if Northern Ireland cannot access EU funds, then this will be a litmus test for the Governments in Dublin, London and Belfast in terms of their commitment to strand two of the Good Friday Agreement. Will they come up with a programme to replace the EU-funded programmes that currently exist for cross-Border co-operation?