Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 21 June 2016.
I believe that there were two who were in favour of withdrawal from the European Union: the representative of the United Kingdom as it stands at present and the First Minister of Northern Ireland, who’s said that publicly. The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey were extremely concerned about the impact on them because, in the Isle of Man, for example, they have an economic pact with the United Kingdom that means that they are affiliated to the European Union. If the United Kingdom were to leave, what would that mean for the Isle of Man? So, we’ll have to discuss what the impact will be after Thursday, if the decision is to withdraw. But, there are other things that we need to discuss internally, for example, fisheries. There are no fisheries that are managed on a United Kingdom level. We’d all have to have joint discussions and negotiations on who would have access to the waters of Wales, England and Scotland. We would all have to discuss together what kind of individual agreements we would have with the other jurisdictions. So, there are a number of things that we would have to discuss if that is what happens on Thursday, which will take a great deal of time. So, there was huge concern, not just between us and Ireland and Scotland, but with the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, too.