A lot of people seem to think a deal can be done between the UK and the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol.

But it hasn't been done yet.

A lot of times been devoted to all the speculation about what that deal might look like.

But on today's red lines, we're not going to focus so much on what the necessary compromises might be.

More on the process required to get all sides across the line.

Tony, where are we, do you think, in that process at the moment?

We seem to be on the crest of a wave, and that wave has been rolling across the protocol

ocean for quite some time now.

We've talked a lot about optimism.

Going back to last September, October, very deep and detailed technical talks between teams on both sides.

And now there seems to be a lot more political momentum and talk of landing zones being close, but we're just not there yet.

Jess, what's your sense of how much still needs to be done?

I think there's a lot of political will and momentum behind these agreements,

but what still needs to be done is they still need to hammer out the details. And there are big questions about some of these other issues,

like the role of the

European Court of Justice and state aid and whether the UK government will continue to insist on

those as red lines and what that means for the prospects of getting a deal. John, we're all watching

from the sidelines, of course, and some of our politicians here in Northern Ireland might well

be thinking there's many a slip, twixt,

cup and lip. Yeah, and one of the issues here, particularly hearing from the business community,

is if a new deal emerges, we don't want it to be something which is a surprise, something which

is done to us rather than with us, because ultimately, if a deal is to stick, it has to be

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