Brexit protocols we hope we won’t need

What a strange pass it has come to: Ireland’s Government and civil servants have spent days and probably nights drafting a highly-detailed, voluminous package of legislative proposals that will be applauded and welcomed by everyone on this island — and by our neighbours across the Irish Sea — yet it’s a bundle we all hope can be binned or, perhaps, just left to gather dust in a ministry archive.

The bill, with 15 sections and covering nine government departments, is necessary to ensure that the damage caused by the UK leaving the EU on March 29 without an agreed divorce settlement is limited to such an extent that cross-border travel, health services, welfare payments and other mutually beneficial arrangements continue without interruption.