‘No credible alternative’ to Protocol says Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister

Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister has said the protocol agreed between the EU and UK regarding the region “must be respected”.

Ahead of her impending talks with Brexit minister Lord Frost, the Vice President of Sinn Féin told the Irish Congress of Trade Unions conference in Belfast today: “The invisible border is our greatest symbol of our peace and there will be no return to a border on this island.

She argued: “Jobs and livelihoods must be safeguarded and the all-island economy must be strengthened. Continued access to the single market and the British market gives us an economic advantage to build and grow exports from local businesses and position ourselves well in attracting FDI,”

“We campaigned for special status and we went on a diplomatic offensive across Europe and the USA. The Irish Protocol represents that special status and there is no credible alternative.

“The protocol was the alternative to the backstop which was painstakingly negotiated, agreed and ratified by the Westminster Parliament and by the European Parliament by no less than David Frost himself, who is now trying to renegotiate. It’s an international law, it must be respected.”

Lord Frost said earlier this month that the European Union would be making a ‘historic misjudgement’ if it wasn’t prepared to make changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The UK’s proposed changes to the deal include changing the legal basis of the Protocol to that of a Treaty governed by international law, not EU law policed by the European Court of Justice. The current Protocol, he said, meant the EU could “make laws which apply in Northern Ireland without any kind of democratic scrutiny or discussion.”

The Protocol was implemented to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the wake of Brexit by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods.