INNL Jeffrey Donaldson February 2 2024

News Letter

The DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson defends his deal with the government to restore Stormont. Sir Jeffrey was speaking to Ben Lowry, editor of the News Letter, at his party's headquarters on Friday February 2 2024

Transcript

00:00 Sir Geoffrey, obviously you have said that there isn't an Irish sea border.

00:04 We as a newspaper said that we think that there is. Lord Dodds said that he thinks there is.

00:08 How do you explain your argument that there is no longer an Irish sea border?

00:13 Well under the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which was supported by all our DUP MPs and our peers,

00:19 there was a proposal for a green lane dealing with goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland

00:24 staying within the UK and a red lane dealing with goods going into the EU.

00:28 What I have secured and what we have achieved is to get rid of the green lane so that goods moving

00:34 from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and staying within the UK, that internal border is gone.

00:39 Those goods are no longer subject to checks and customs arrangements and I think that's an important win for Northern Ireland.

00:46 There is still the body of 300 or so EU laws that do prevail. In other words, even if the border itself

00:54 seems to be non-existent, there is that change and the point of the change is the Irish sea.

00:58 Well, where we sell our goods to the European Union, then those goods have to be made to EU standards.

01:04 But what is important and what we have secured is that where goods are coming into Northern Ireland

01:08 from Great Britain that are made to British standards, those goods are available now in our

01:13 shops and our supermarkets. We can once again buy British products in our supermarkets.

01:19 The protocol banned those products. We have removed that ban. I believe that's a good day for Northern Ireland.

01:25 Another criticism of the deal is that the Windsor Framework has, because the EU wouldn't contemplate it,

01:31 has not in fact legally been reopened. I'm talking about the framework. I'm talking about the European

01:37 Union agreeing to reopen the deal. How do you respond to that criticism?

01:40 I disagree with that criticism. The legal text that constitutes key elements of the Windsor Framework

01:47 will be changed and we've already seen the beginning of that process. The DUP has secured

01:53 and delivered real change for the benefit of everyone in Northern Ireland. We have met our

01:59 objectives, we've assessed the outcome against our seven tests and we are satisfied as a party

02:04 that this provides a basis for Northern Ireland moving forward and to restore our political institutions.

02:10 And what about this argument that you have made that, you know, you securing the gains,

02:17 you haven't got everything. Could you elaborate a little bit upon that?

02:20 Well, I believe that this deal is good for Northern Ireland. Is it perfect? No. Are there still

02:26 matters that we need to resolve? Are there still further changes that we would like to secure?

02:32 Absolutely yes. And I will be honest with people about this, but I think that the gains we have

02:37 made, the wins that we have secured for Northern Ireland, we should bank those and we should move

02:44 forward together to secure further change in the future. The DUP has shown that it can deliver

02:49 real change. When others said there'll be no renegotiation, we proved them wrong.

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