The Orange Order is not opposed to special Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland as long as key provisions of the Irish Sea trade protocol are removed, a senior Orangeman has said.
Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, Rev Mervyn Gibson, said checks on goods arriving from Great Britain should be limited to those destined for onward transport to the Republic of Ireland.
He said if that change was secured, and the oversight role for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) removed, then the Northern Ireland Protocol could be made to work.
“I’m not hung up on the name,” Mr Gibson told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I don’t care if they call it the protocol or whatever, as long as it doesn’t do those two things (checks on goods destined for NI and ECJ oversight).”
Mr Gibson said unless those changes were secured in the current negotiations between the EU and UK, unionists should be prepared to pull down the powersharing institutions at Stormont
“I personally believe it should have been pulled down a few months back,” he said.
“But we are where we are. We would say it’s to be pulled down and it shouldn’t go back up again until the issues around the protocol are dealt with.”
Mr Gibson was asked about DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s repeated threats to withdraw ministers from Stormont – a move that would prevent the Executive making any significant decisions.
“The threat hasn’t worked, but maybe the actual pulling it down will work,” he said.
“It’s the one lever we have to make the British Government realise how serious the unionist community are taking this.
“Let’s wait and see, I think it will come down, I think everybody’s been strung along here.”
He added: “It is about our very existence as Northern Ireland because it leads us into an all-island economy, which is a precursor for an all-Ireland.
“That’s how important this is and, don’t get me wrong, personally, and people have mixed views with the institution, but I’m a devolutionist, I want our Assembly to work, some say it hasn’t been working.
“I’m happy that we get it back up again working, providing there’s no protocol.
“But until the protocol is sorted out, every day this country is slipping towards a united Ireland and that’s how serious the unionist people see it.”
I personally believe it should have been pulled down a few months back
Senior Orangemen have held talks with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Taoiseach Micheal Martin in recent days as part of their ongoing lobbying campaign against the contentious Irish Sea trade barriers.
Mr Gibson said more than 52,000 people signed a recent Orange Order petition, which was available to sign both online and in Orange halls, protesting at the protocol.
He said the Orange Order was not against special arrangements for Northern Ireland.
“We are not against special arrangements at all, but those arrangements should not stop goods (moving) within the United Kingdom market, (it) should be unfettered access, and we should not be subject to any court of justice in the European Union.”
He said arrangements would only be acceptable to unionists if they did not “impinge on the sovereignty of Northern Ireland”.
