STORMONT'S finance minister last night urged the British government to provide the additional cash needed to deliver the commitments of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Conor Murphy said he had written to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove stressing how the north's businesses would need "considerable practical and financial support" to prepare for the new arrangements due to come into force in three weeks' time.
"With a small window of time left until we leave the EU its important certainty is provided as soon as possible," the Sinn Féin minister said.
His comments came after Mr Gove outlined the arrangements that will be put in place on January 1 following agreement on the protocol between the UK government and EU earlier this week.
The measures detailed by the minister at Westminster yesterday, which will create a customs border in the Irish Sea, have been welcomed by nationalists and Alliance but Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken described it as a "bad day for Northern Ireland".
In a statement last night the DUP noted that the arrangements were "temporary" and that the assembly would vote on their continued implementation in four years' time. The party warned that unless there was support from both nationalists and unionists "they will ultimately fail".
Mr Gove told MPs there will be no EU "mini embassy or mission" in Belfast as some in Brussels had "originally sought" but that EU officials would be present at the north's ports
He said the agreement at the UK-EU joint committee this week would enable "unfettered access" for Northern Ireland businesses to access the market in Britain.
The minister said the provisions in the Internal Market Bill which would have overridden parts of the Brexit agreement were "no longer required".
He said the protocol would spare the region from damaging tariffs which could have hiked supermarket prices, and said there would be no additional red tape applied on businesses in Northern Ireland.
"This deal protects unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses to their most important market as the prime minister underlined," he said.
"This had to be protected in full and that meant removing any prospect of export declarations for Northern Ireland goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain."
The Cabinet Office minister said the deal also ensured the north left the Common Agricultural Policy and that the Stormont executive would set farm subsidies, with more than £400 million of spending each year "totally exempt" from state aid rules.
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill welcomed details of the protocol arrangements, saying they would "avoid any hardening of the border, protect the all-Ireland economy and protect the Good Friday Agreement".
"It is now incumbent on the British government to engage directly with businesses in order to make them aware of exactly what the new arrangements will be and what they will be required to do and, crucially, what support will available for them," she said.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: "This party opposed the protocol and warned about all of the problems which the minister is now having to address and whilst we welcome the changes which have been made today, nevertheless the real test will be in how these measures work on the ground rather than the spin we're given in this house."
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the protocol represented the "least worst option".
"I think the DUP in particular should reflect on how they were bought and sold by a government that has never had the interests of Northern Ireland at heart," he said.
Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry acknowledged progress between the EU and British government but said people were given little time to prepare.
"This provisional agreement is helpful in many respects, but I am conscious many of the derogations are rather time-limited, and there is not yet the long-term certainty on many challenges facing local companies," he said.
Mr Aiken said Mr Gove had "kicked the can down the road for another three months" creating uncertainty for producers and consumers.
"We urgently need to hear more than just bluster from the UK government on how they are truly going to protect Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market – today’s statement just doesn’t cut it," he said.
