In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack.

The European Union argues that we should be subject to rules of the club that we have left.

The precondition is the level playing field.

We can deliver a real Brexit that achieves our objectives.

But if there is not a deal, we still need the Irish Protocol or the Northern Irish Protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain. protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain.

Hello and welcome back to Brexit Republic, RTE's podcast on Brexit.

I'm Tony Connolly, RTE's Europe editor in Brussels.

I'm Sean Wheeler, RTE's correspondent in London.

And I'm Cullam O'Mongown, RTEes Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin. After a summer hiatus, Brexit Republic is back to assess all the latest developments

in Brussels, London, Dublin and today in Belfast. Well, it's Groundhog Day again. The Northern Ireland

protocol is back in the news despite the best efforts of the EU to keep things calm and orderly,

especially after a relatively quiet marching season over the summer.

This week the DUP leader Geoffrey Donaldson promised to pull down the storm at assembly within weeks,

unless there are big changes to the protocol.

While last weekend, David Frost raised the

stakes further by saying flexibilities within the protocol were no longer enough. We'll hear from

Professor John Tong of Liverpool University about Geoffrey Donaldson's electoral gamble and we'll hear

from Marashevich during his busy round of meeting stakeholders, businesses and politicians in Northern Ireland.

And why dropping the European Court of Justice from the Protocol, a fresh demand from London, would exclude Northern Ireland from access to the EU single market.

Well, in case Marashevich was in any doubt as to what the DUP wanted when he came to Northern Ireland.

...