TUV leader Jim Allister has this morning written to the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service challenging him on why he is ignoring the threat to Northern Ireland’s economy posed by the Backstop.
Mr Allister’s letter is as follows:
Dear Permanent Secretary
I am in receipt of your analysis of the consequences of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, better called a world trade exit.
I am still waiting on you publishing an analysis of the proffered alternative of the disastrous Backstop proposal and the impact of the resulting Irish Sea regulatory border on the Northern Ireland economy, given our £11b annual ‘imports’ from GB.
The contrasting silence from NICS on this crippling threat is most telling.
I hope you get my point!
I also note the imbalance of your report in that there was not a mention of the opportunities of Brexit. In circumstances where you were delivering a doom laden message for the agri-food industry, if tariffs emerged, would it not have shown some semblance of balance to evaluate the corresponding opportunity for the NI farming industry if there was a void of supply to be filled in the GB market in consequence of ROI exports equally facing tariffs? Or did that not fit the agenda?
Finally, your report refers to a “hard border”. Please define for me what you mean by a “hard border”.
Yours sincerely,
Jim Allister