Northern Ireland and the EU Referendum inquiry

Published 16 January 2017.

The Government "welcomes" the Committee's report and says that, following the referendum result, it will invoke Article 50 "no later than March 2017" while seeking "the very best possible deal" for the UK, including Northern Ireland.

• On funding, the Government says the Treasury will "guarantee funding for structural and investment fund projects which are signed before we leave the EU", including Peace IV and Interreg projects; the Northern Ireland Executive decides what criteria to use for projects it administers.
• For agriculture, the Treasury has guaranteed the sector the same level of funding it would have received under Pillar 1 of CAP "until the end of the Multiannual Financial Framework in 2020", regardless of the date of exit.
• On the border, the Government says it remains "firmly committed" to maintaining the Common Travel Area, with "no immediate changes" to practices, and notes the importance of police cooperation, which it says will "continue to remain so after EU Exit".
• It states that there is a "strong commitment" between the UK Government, the Irish Government and the NI Executive "to see we do not return to border controls of the past".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error