DUP MP Paul Girvan says that deal on the table from the government to restore Stormont means Northern Ireland will remain part of the EU single market - cites lack of access to duty-free goods for NI travellers

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Girvan – one of the less high-profile of the party’s eight MPs – questioned the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris about the details of the deal.

Access to duty-free goods to passengers in the UK visiting EU nations was phased out in 1999.

From January 1, 2021, access to duty free shopping at airports in Great Britain was extended to once again include those going to EU destinations, reflecting the fact that GB had left the EU.

But this was not extended to Northern Ireland’s airports, with the result that NI-to-EU passengers are paying higher prices for the same goods (spirits, cigarettes, perfume) than GB-to-EU passengers.

Mr Girvan told the Secretary of State on Wednesday that he wanted to raise the matter of “how Northern Ireland is affected by not getting access to duty-free”.

"Every other airport in the United Kingdom has access to duty-free, yet those flying from Northern Ireland to any part of Europe cannot avail themselves of duty-free,” he said.

“That is one area where the single market is affecting us.

"We are still part of that single market and, from what I see in the Command Paper [setting out the details of what the government intends to do as part of its renegotiated Protocol settlement], we will continue to be.”

Mr Girvan also said that “as a consequence, in our energy market in Northern Ireland... we are paying a carbon tax at an entirely different rate from any other part of Great Britain”.

“What measures on that are included in the Command Paper?" he said.

"It was handed to us at what I would call the eleventh hour and 59th minute. We would like to be given time to get into the details.

"We very much feel like we are being bounced through a timetable and that we will not get through the detail that is supposedly in the statutory instruments and the Command Paper.”

More from this reporter in the last 48 hours:

• Sammy Wilson appears to break ranks with the DUP leadership and criticises the government's deal - calling the Tories 'spineless Brexit-betrayers'

• Loyalist Communities Council chairman David Campbell says that a Sinn Fein First Minister for Northern Ireland is 'anti-democratic'

• Man whose father and uncle were both shot dead by the IRA says that having Sinn Fein First Minister is a sign 'society has lost its moral compass'

Mr Heaton-Harris responded that “I think it is fair to say that Northern Ireland was part of a single energy market across the island of Ireland well before we left the European Union”.

He added: “Northern Ireland… does have access to the EU single market and unfettered access to the UK’s internal market, but it is not subjugated to the European Union arrangements.

"It will not pay into the European Union budget. It is not subject to European Union freedom of movement, services rules, environmental rules, labour rules or procurement rules; neither is it subject to the European Medicines Agency, the common agricultural policy or the common fisheries policy.

"Northern Ireland has unique circumstances because of its geographic location. Everybody recognises that.

"We want it to thrive in our Union, and with the Command Paper that direction of travel is set.”

The News Letter has asked the Northern Ireland Office for a clear answer on whether its plans, as set out in the Command Paper yesterday, will mean NI-to-EU travellers can benefit from duty-free goods.

A response is awaited.