BREXIT is a "huge mistake" and a "tragedy for the United Kingdom as a whole", Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry has told his party's annual conference.
Just days after his leader Naomi Long said a "botched Brexit" could mean greater support for a united Ireland, Mr Farry blamed the current crisis at Stormont on the outcome of last June's EU referendum.
Just under 56 per cent of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.
The North Down MLA said the region needed special status - "or at the very least a special deal" - where there was continued free access to the EU Single Market and freedom of movement on the island for "people, goods, services and capital".
"Under all of the possible Brexit scenarios, the UK will be diminished," the one-time Stormont minister said.
He also raised concern about continued support for the region's farmers, who he said relied on EU subsidies for 80 per cent of their income.
Mr Farry said the north's farmers received 10 per cent of the UK's total Common Agricultural Policy payments.
The Alliance deputy said Brexit had already impacted negatively on the north's devolved institutions and had the potential to undermine the Good Friday Agreement.
"I concur with those who regard the recent collapse of our political institutions and wider political instability here in Northern Ireland as an early consequence of Brexit," he said.
And although the High Court had found that the Good Friday Agreement is not directly impacted by Brexit, he said the ruling ignored the "indirect impacts".
"It is the joint EU membership from the UK and Ireland that gives practical effect to the agreement and allows for unhindered movement and engagement on a north-south and east-west basis in parallel," Mr Farry said.
The North Down MLA said Brexit would impact everyone, whether "unionist, nationalist or a liberal progressive".
He said if the executive was to be restored it needed to have a shared understanding of what Northern Ireland's key interests are and a negotiating framework in which those interests could be addressed.
