A deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol is “doable”, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has predicted. 

After negotiating the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago, Mr Ahern is no stranger to the complexities of  northern politics and believes a breakthrough is imminent. 

The DUP have refused to nominate ministers to the Northern Ireland Executive because of their unhappiness with the Protocol and the barriers it has imposed on businesses in Great Britain who trade with the North. 

It is a problem Mr Ahern acknowledges and thinks can be rectified.  

“I think we all understand what the DUP’s problem is - that is the UK internal market - and it’s a question of being able to back on into the other [EU market] without doing damage on either side,” he told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“The EU will not change the rules of the single market but if they can find a credible solution, which I’ve always felt they could, [then they will]. 

“They did find solutions to medicines and I think they can find solutions to some of the horticultural issues and some of the other issues too.”

People take part in a Loyalist protest in Newtownards, County Down, against the Northern Ireland Protocol. Picture date: Friday June 18, 2021.Brian Lawless/PA Wire/PA Images

The DUP have issued a list of seven demands which include the abolition of checks between Britain and Northern Ireland, no new regulatory barriers within the United Kingdom and giving the people of the North “a say in laws that govern them.” 

Most of these demands, Mr Ahern believes, “can be answered either comprehensively or they can be explained”. 

“This is what I want to see them end up with; Northern Ireland will end up [with] cross border trade with the Republic,” he said. 

“They will be part of the UK internal market, I think they’re part of the UK, so they should be and they’ll be part of the single market. 

“The three card trick rarely comes up but it can for Northern Ireland.” 

Loyalists take part in an anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rally in Portadown, Co Armagh. Picture date: Saturday June 5, 2021.

Mr Ahern also described the new British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, as a “breath of fresh air” but cautioned that he still had a tough job keeping his eurosceptic backbenchers on side. 

“They’re a tough group and they are on his back all the time,” he said. 

Earlier this week on a visit to Belfast, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said  “genuine differences” remain between the two sides and that London would not be rushed into signing an agreement.

Main image: Split of Bertie Ahern and a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.