Northern Ireland consumers face higher food bills if “nonsense” elements of Irish Sea trading arrangements are not binned, the Agriculture Minister has warned. Edwin Poots said one consequence of the Northern Ireland Protocol will see the supply line of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of potatoes from Great Britain to the region’s fish and chip shops potentially severed on January 1. He added that, while other damaging aspects of the protocol have been delayed as a result of grace periods agreed by the UK and EU, the can has just been “kicked down the road”. “Every person in Northern Ireland, every consumer in Northern Ireland will foot the bill if we don’t get these things resolved,” Mr Poots told his Assembly scrutiny committee.