any kind of eu rules to be purely voluntary and applied to businesses who were then sending goods on to the irish public and the eu and that would be for the businesses to undertake. but it doesn t look like that ll be the approach because the protocol effectively applied eu rules to goods in northern ireland. i think whilst that remains it ll be a big problem for some unionists. we will also have to have a quick look, a detailed look, at the democratic checks that will be put in place at stormont. the unionist didn t like them because it didn t necessarily require unionists to consent to them and instead operated on the basis of and instead operated on the basis of a majority of votes at stormont and if that is still the case then they might have a problem. in most cases it wouldn t be a problem but here in northern ireland because of the balance of the peace process most sensitive issues previously required a majority of both unionists and nationalists, but that wasn t applied to thi
watson, thank you. resources will follow suit. iain watson, thank you. we can get more and less from brussels and our europe correspondentjessica parker. does it look too you d like a deal will be announced? 0bviously does it look too you d like a deal will be announced? obviously we don t know as yet but all the choreography signals look pretty positive. i choreography signals look pretty ositive. ~ . choreography signals look pretty ositive. ~ ., ., ., ., positive. i think there are a lot of clues. positive. i think there are a lot of clues- clue positive. i think there are a lot of clues. clue number positive. i think there are a lot of clues. clue number one - positive. i think there are a lot of clues. clue number one is - positive. i think there are a lot of clues. clue number one is that i positive. i think there are a lot of| clues. clue number one is that we have known through sources for a little while now that the plan was for ursula von der leyen to head to the uk to
into the united kingdom, said that everyone in the united kingdom should be treated on an equal footing. they are saying that people in northern ireland are subjected to eu laws despite brexit, which the dup supported, and, in effect, they want far less of a say by the eu over anything happening in northern ireland. now the question then is, will they accept some say for the eu, or will it have to be, in the words of one of them, the expunging of the eu from northern ireland? so there may be an internal debate among democratic unionists. but the dup of course got on board to help rishi sunak s predecessor theresa may over brexit, where she couldn t get a majority in the house of commons, and in return they got around £2 billion to help with northern ireland. we know currently in northern ireland there is a big funding gap. perhaps, perhaps the uk government might be able to, perhaps, ease some of their concerns if they also say that if they go back into power sharing then quite a lot
back into the horizon scheme and if rishi sunak wants to build some other kind of arrangements and working with the eu going forward. but i think he has a political balance to strike. the other final thing i would mention is, if rishi sunak can t get a deal on the northern ireland protocol he will be under a lot of pressure from his own backbenchers to move ahead with another wind protocol bill, this very controversial piece of legislation which could have disapplied parts of the mutually agreed original treaty. then you would be in the land of the eu relaunching legal action, warnings of a possible trade war, so those are some of the possible considerations he has in his mind. jessica parker, thank you. we will bring you much more on this over the next few hours to see if a deal emerges and there is much more online as well. at least 59 people have drowned after their boat broke up
we are looking at the dup in northern ireland. why is that? quite siml the northern ireland. why is that? quite simply they are northern ireland. why is that? quite simply they are the northern ireland. why is that? qt ta: simply they are the largest unionist party in northern ireland and the most sceptical about the deal reached with the eu initially which puts, as they would see it, a border in the irish sea, goods being checked. it looks like that ll be eased but that s not necessarily going to be enough to win over. the cause of the scepticism they will go through any deal with a fine tooth comb and will not give a thumbs up toa comb and will not give a thumbs up to a deal in advance and stop it s a high wire act for rishi sunak because even if he reaches an agreement with ursula von der leyen and the eu commission, that might help training arrangements with northern ireland but it doesn t solve the political problem because that s a lack of power sharing in northern ireland. t