A majority of people in Northern Ireland back the European Union’s proposals to resolve trade issues with the Brexit protocol, a poll has found.
The University of Liverpool survey found high levels of consensus in unionist and nationalist communities, who both wished to see practical resolutions to issues around the movement of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The poll found that 42.2 per cent thought the measures proposed last month by the EU should be accepted compared with 20.7 per cent saying they should be rejected. It found that 54 per cent accepted the EU’s proposals to ease the movement of food, plant and animal health goods, while 24 per cent disagreed.
The UK government’s proposal that goods should be able to circulate without checks on their movement into and within Northern Ireland if they meet either UK or EU standards were backed by 74.7 per cent.
The survey also found the protocol, the mechanism agreed in Brexit talks to avoid a hard border on the island, was ranked fourth among the most important issues for voters in Northern Ireland behind Covid, healthcare and the economy.
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The Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol: Consensus or Conflict? survey questioned 1,002 people in every council area in Northern Ireland. It found the majority had adopted a pragmatic approach to the protocol, including support for mitigation measures put forward by both the EU and British government.
Professor Peter Shirlow, director of the university’s institute of Irish studies, said the survey found evidence of “inter-community consensus” with consent achievable when negotiations explored and offered alternatives to the issues posed by the protocol.
“It is evident that respondents seek proportionality in north-south and east-west trade relationships. There is no evidence here of mass rejection, even among unionists, of the mitigations advanced by the EU. Similarly, there is no nationalist/republican rejection of key UK government proposals. This is not what is assumed within media and political commentary,” Shirlow said.
He added: “Complex issues cannot be reduced to soundbites, tweets and headlines.”
Shirlow said that overall the poll suggested that the majority of people in Northern Ireland did not support the triggering of Article 16, the mechanism that allows the European Union or United Kingdom to unilaterally suspend aspects of the protocol if it causes economic, societal or environmental difficulties.
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The UK government said in July it believed the threshold for using Article 16 had been reached. Micheál Martin, the taoiseach, said on Wednesday that it would be “irresponsible and reckless” to invoke the mechanism.
The survey found 65 per cent believed that the Northern Ireland assembly and executive should remain in place until elections next May while 9.6 per cent disagreed. A minority of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) — 12.8 per cent — and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) — 6.7 per cent — voters disagreed.
Of those who took part in the survey, which was conducted in the last two weeks of last month, 39.8 per cent identified themselves as unionist, 26.8 per cent as nationalist and 33.3 per cent as neither.
The survey support for Sinn Fein at 23.5 per cent, ahead of the DUP on 20.6 per cent, the UUP on 13 per cent and Traditional Unionist Voice on 5.6 per cent. The survey projected growth for the Alliance Party, Traditional Unionist Voice and the Greens, with the Alliance doubling its vote since 2017.
“This survey shows there is a breakdown of binary politics. There is dissatisfaction with identity politics. Those who are voting are voting beyond identity politics,” Shirlow said.
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“What we are seeing is the outworking of the Good Friday agreement. More people are choosing neither unionist or nationalism as their identity. This is a seismic shift. What we are witnessing here is the emergence of a society where consensus fits across all communities. You can no longer treat issues as orange or green because significant sections of the population have decided that they will choose what they think about an issue based on their own experiences.”
“We are seeing the growth of people who vote for the parties like Alliance and the Greens. There are now three voting blocs in Northern Ireland. There’s unionism, nationalism and a third block which votes on issues. There are now three communities in Northern Ireland.”
Last week a seperate poll by the University of Belfast found that a majority of people in Northern Ireland view the protocol as positive. It found that 52 per cent agreed the protocol was “a good thing” for the region, up from 43 per cent in a similar survey in June.