According to the executive director of the Center for European Policy Fabian Zuleeg, the Brexit deal negotiated by Boris Johnson's government leaves no room for any other solution than a trade barrier in the Sea of Ireland.
Brexit is seeking to waive responsibility related to what it has signed, unilaterally breaking the protocol is an irresponsible and unreliable act of Brexit.
The Irish Sea border is the only viable option to put the Northern Ireland Protocol on hold once and for all, said Dr Fabian Zuleeg, expert on European affairs.
Both the European Union and the UK have agreed by 2020 to implement customs checks in the Sea of Ireland to avoid the border between the two Irelands, which would directly violate the Good Friday Agreement.
But now, the DUP member argues that the Irish Sea border is creating problems such as exacerbating the cost of living crisis and further dividing Northern Ireland from the UK. They refused to form a government in Northern Ireland until all their concerns were resolved.
Speaking to, Dr Zuleeg said there was no sensible alternative under the current Brexit trade deal.
He said: “What we have is Brexit has created a dilemma for Northern Ireland because of the UK's decision to leave the single market and customs union.
"That implies that there must be a border somewhere.
"For various reasons, both sides had an agreement with previous UK governments that that border could not be on the island of Ireland."
"There's probably a lot of work to be done to make that border as unseen as possible but there's going to have to be an international border somewhere.
"There are many reasons for that," Dr. Zuleeg said.
"But this is what was agreed upon.
"So you come into the question of what the alternatives are.
"We've got an alternative that was proposed by the government in May, which is support."
Dr Zuleeg added that has been politically dismissed in the UK.
"The deal that Boris Johnson then made is the current deal, which means there's some checks in the Irish Sea.
"Those are the only available options on the table
"And now we're seeing the consequences of that.
"Now saying we have to get rid of those checks in the Irish Sea can't be an answer because it goes back to the dilemma we had before."
Dr Zuleeg continued: "Unless the UK government agrees to rejoin the single market and customs union."
"Then this is the last option that was chosen.
"I can't see the UK going backwards, which ultimately implies single market membership or customs union for the UK.
"So we're talking about basically having to make these checks in the Irish Sea work."
Obviously, we have to have a deal with the EU. Even if we decide to break WTO rules, the people of NI will blame us for the presence of an EU operated border.
Anything the government does has a downside. Johnson's biggest mistake was signing an agreement he didn't intend to honor - because the UK is now seen as the villain for breaking international agreements for domestic political reasons.
Johnson's solution to not being able to please everyone was simply to lie to everyone.
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