Michael McDowell – common sense solutions needed to Protocol problems

A common sense solution should be found to Northern Ireland Protocol problems like the supply of soil, former Tánaiste Michael McDowell said. Photo: Niall Carson/PA

A common sense solution should be found to Northern Ireland Protocol problems like the supply of soil, a former Tánaiste said.

The Republic’s ex-attorney general and Justice Minister Michael McDowell said his jurisdiction faced many of the same challenges which concerned unionists, like obtaining seed potatoes from Scotland.

He questioned why the European Commission was pursuing legal action over the UK’s unilateral extension of post-Brexit grace periods and called for better cooperation.

“There is a common sense to easing the new arrangements into existence.

“The idea that plants cannot be moved from Britain to Northern Ireland in particular without removing the soil from them; these are the kind of issues that common sense would suggest should be addressed in a common sense way.

“I do not see what threat there is from British soil.”

He said Ireland was also affected by red tape surrounding the import of Scottish seed potatoes.

“The unionist concerns, all the paperwork concerns, also apply in Dublin and in Rosslare as well.

“We are not on opposite sides of experience in relation to these matters.

“Practical outcomes are the important thing.”

Mr McDowell called for a sensible solution to issues like those surrounding seed potatoes (Nick Ansell/PA)

He said the European Commission launching legal action was not the right decision.

“They should sit down and work out what the problems are and what the common sense solutions to them are.”

He said it was naive to think that the end of the Brexit transition period in January would go smoothly.

“Relaxation of the grace periods is probably a sensible thing to have happened.”

Mr McDowell gave evidence to Stormont’s Executive Office Committee.

The former leader of the Progressive Democrats, who were minority partners in previous Dublin coalition governments, appeared in his role as a member of Ireland’s Seanad.

The DUP boycotted the meeting as part of its protest against the Protocol, which it argues undermines the country’s integral place in the UK and its internal market.

Ulster Unionist Doug Beattie was the sole unionist present and claimed his community’s views had been ignored by Dublin ministers.

Members of the Seanad Select Committee on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU gave evidence to Stormont’s Executive Office Committee.

Mr Beattie said he told his Irish counterparts: “The unionist concerns have been sneered at by your Government.”

Sinn Féin Assembly member Martina Anderson said there should be no no-go areas on north-south matters.

“The scale of the damage done to lives and livelihoods caused by the Brexit mess is absolutely breathtaking, not just in the south but particularly in the north of Ireland.

“Some of that has yet to play itself out.”