Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:09 pm on 9 October 2018.
First, of course, nobody argues that there should be any kind of hard border between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom—nobody's saying that they wish to see that. But of course the risk is that that might happen without any kind of deal. In the days pre the single market, there were checks at Holyhead. If I remember rightly, not everybody was checked, but there weren't any kind of passport checks at all. But there is a risk in this, of course, because, as I said before, if it looks as if it’s easier to get through the Northern Ireland ports rather than the Welsh ports, then, of course, trade will be impacted because of that, and it will have a negative impact on the Welsh ports’ trade. So, once again, what is the answer? Well, the answer is to remain within the customs union and to keep access to the single market. There is no need to remain in the European Union in order to have those.