Finally we have some straight talking on the border issue. The EU’s chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, didn’t mince his words last week when he said: “It is important to tell the truth. A UK decision to leave the single market and to leave the customs union would make border checks unavoidable.”

With the UK remaining adamant that it will leave both the single market and customs union, we have to question where this leaves the pre-Christmas deal that there would be no hard border on the island of Ireland – an agreement An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar classed as “bulletproof”.

Livestock specialist Ciaran Lenehan reports on a recent visit to the Norway-Sweden border. Even with the maximum use of technology and shared customs inspections, there are still delays of around 15 minutes per crossing.

As Phelim O’Neill highlights, the crossing observed by the Irish Farmers Journal handled 300 trucks per day. The border crossing on the M1 motorway sees 5,772 commercial crossing per day.

The clarity that Barnier has brought to the border issue is to be welcomed. For too long, the focus has been on trying to talk around the border issue rather than face the facts.

Hopefully his comments will help focus minds.