Northern Ireland's OFMdFM Letter On BREXIT

The letter from OFMdFM to the British PM regarding NI needs from the BREXIT negotiations makes for some interesting reading. You can read it all here: https://www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/execoffice/Letter%20to%20PM%20from%20FM%20%26%20dFM.pdf.

To summarise, in order to mitigate the risks to the Peace Process and NI economy as a whole we require:

1. The nature of the border and cross-border law enforcement to remain unchanged.
2. NI agri-food business and fisheries benefited from the EU market and CAP so that needs to remain unchanged.
3. NI as a whole benefited from EU funding to the tune of €13 billion (thats billion with a b) since 1994 with a further €3bln coming in before 2020. We need that too.
4. For FDI and local businesses to continue to thrive we need access to the EU market at the same rates and access to labour from the Eurozone. So that can’t change for either the public or private sector. Oh, and our citizens need to be able to work in ROI and vice-versa.
5. We need our access to energy to remain unchanged.

So two small points. Firstly, I didn’t hear anyone in the leave camp mentioning the €13bln we were to the good thanks to the EU during the campaign.

Secondly, given all the needs NI has in order for it to continue to grow, remind me First Minister why exactly we were better off outside the EU again?