Dr. Adele Bergin:

Deputy Burton has asked a series of questions. I will begin and my colleague, Dr. McQuinn, might comment at various places. In terms of the best outcome for Ireland, it is that the UK would stay in the EU. After that, the next best outcome for Ireland is whatever keeps the United Kingdom as closely aligned as possible to the EU. The current withdrawal agreement does allow for a customs union and a free trade agreement as well. Whatever language is used, and I know different types of things have been proposed in the United Kingdom in recent weeks, the best one for Ireland is the one that keeps the UK as closely aligned as possible to the EU.

On the question of sterling, we have a figure for a depreciation in sterling of around 7% in the long run in our two no-deal scenarios and around half that rate in the deal scenario. That puts sterling in the worst case scenario at 95p to the euro, but in the very short run one could imagine that it could go to parity.

Most of the work on Brexit that refers to the UK does not really distinguish between Northern Ireland and so on-----