Dr. Katy Hayward:

We could go round and round on this when we talk about it in majoritarian or ideological terms. It is interesting to note the goodwill of the EU in looking out for flexible solutions. The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee recently published a report on electricity and energy and discussed special status on energy in Northern Ireland, which was a significant and notable step forward. This would be unusual in a European Union context, but it might be possible to start talking about sectoral or sub-sectoral interests with regards special arrangement for the Border region or for Northern Ireland with the rest of Ireland in areas like trade. If there are special arrangements for Northern Ireland, for example, if it stayed in the European Economic Area, that would solve many trade problems immediately. As Mr. Sheridan has already said, it would bring in new problems for east-west trade. It may be extremely complicated but it might be worth beginning to look into particular sectors that would be most damaged by a hardening North-South Border and investigate special arrangements at that level.