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image captionGraffiti has appeared in a number of areas showing opposition to the NI Protocol
There has been a coming together of unionism in recent days to oppose the NI Protocol, Arlene Foster has said.
On Tuesday, the DUP published a five-point plan aimed at scrapping the NI part of the Brexit deal.
It called for unity among unionist parties, who say the protocol damages trade and threatens the UK union.
But Sinn Féin has said the protocol must remain in place, insisting there would always be difficulties in implementing it.
The protocol was designed to ensure an open border between NI and the Republic of Ireland.
James Cox
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald spoke with Taoiseach Micheál Martin earlier today about the port situation in Northern Ireland.
She said that threats against port workers in Belfast and Larne are totally unacceptable and must be lifted immediately so people can return to work.
Inspections at Larne and Belfast ports were suspended on Monday after sinister graffiti and reports of intelligence-gathering on inspectors and police stepped up patrols.
Lorries arriving at new inspection facilities at Belfast Port on Tuesday morning were turned around and redirected by UK Border Force officials.
Stormont ministers have united to appeal for threats against workers conducting Brexit port checks to be lifted.
Republic s travel and quarantine rules sloppy and incoherent About 50% of the 800 who would have come in yesterday would be Irish citizens travelling back in from holidaying abroad. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire. Cate McCurry, Press Association 03 February, 2021 14:33
The Republic of Ireland government s rules on international travel and mandatory quarantine have been criticised as sloppy and incoherent .
Opposition parties hit out at the government s health advice and regulations around travel, describing them as inadequate , after ministers appeared to giving confusing advice around the meaning of quarantine and self-isolation.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said quarantining at home means staying within your household.
Calls to cast aside the Northern Ireland protocol are “completely unrealistic”, Simon Coveney has said adding it “will not happen”.
Ireland, the EU and the UK have a legal obligation in an international treaty to implement the protocol, the Foreign Affairs Minister said.
“The protocol is not primarily the problem here, the problem is caused by Brexit, and the kind of Brexit Britain pursued and insisted on, because there were alternatives that would have been much easier to implement.
“The EU wanted to share a customs union and a single market with the UK, that would have meant no barriers to trade. The EU was willing to support the backstop”, Minister Coveney said.
Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney called today on the Spanish government to engage in inclusive negotiations and bring forward a positive, new agenda which enables self-determination for the people of Catalunya and the Basque Country.
Writing in An Phoblacht the South Antrim MLA and minister in the northern Executive also said that the EU must use its considerable diplomatic influence with the Spanish government to assist in finding permanent resolutions.
Declan Kearney said:
“A political resolution to the crisis between Catalunya and Spain will only be found through an inclusive negotiation process. So as a matter of urgency the Spanish government should resume the dialogue with leaders of the independence movement which began in February 2020, but has been stalled ever since.