Stormont protocol vote: Northern Ireland faces a tsunami of regulations without any ability to say stop, says Aiken

As Stormont gears up for a landmark vote on the Windsor Framework, an Ulster Unionist MLA has urged MLAs to make the decision based on Northern Ireland’s best interests – not ideology.

Dr Steve Aiken says Northern Ireland faces a tsunami of new regulations from Brussels, without any ability to say stop.

placeholder image — Steve Aiken has previously warned the Assembly that 'red flags' about public spending have been ignored by Sinn Fein and Alliance MLAs on the Windsor Framework committee.

MLAs vote on Tuesday about whether Articles 5-10 of the deal will be continued, but unionists say the vote is rigged as the cross-community consent applied to most controversial decisions will not apply – meaning it will pass.

The South Antrim MLA told the News Letter that MLAs “should be paying heed to the many companies, businesses, farmers and consumers who are being increasingly impacted by the cumulative effectives of EU legislation. There is no doubt that divergence is increasing and significant changes in our markets are occurring. Not least of these is the chilling effect on internal UK trade, caricaturised by the many 'GPSR' unable to supply notices that many of us are receiving.

“On a further note this year we have only had to deal with around 23 directives and applicability motions from Brussels; next year, with no European elections taking place we will have to deal around 80 directives, 1200 regulations and around 700 additional decisions coming to impact on us. Just how are we going to deal with this Tsunami without any ability to say stop, is beyond me. This is even before additional changes, such as the recent EU trade deal with Mercosur kicks in, when the Irish Farmers association have stated that granting market access to 100's of thousands of tonnes of beef and poultry, will decimate Irish and EU sectors”. He said Alliance, SF and SDLP MLAs will vote on ideological lines – rather than telling both London and Brussels that NI is to fragile to impose internal borders.

But the Alliance leader said the deal “remains the only viable option at clearing up the mess” made by those who backed Brexit. Naomi Long said “it is what we need to answer the challenges posed to our region. Alliance will continue working on reducing the level of checks in the Irish Sea, including through our proposals on an agreement around agri-food and drink”.