By Ben Kerrigan-
Goods flowing from Britain to Northern Ireland will be inspected under agreements already settled with Northern Ireland, Ireland’s Foreign Minister has confirmed.
Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister discredited Boris Johnson’s claim that under his Brexit deal no checks or controls on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Britain will take place.
Coveney insisted that under the terms of the withdrawal agreement the prime minister negotiated with the European Union there would be inspections on goods moving in both directions. His comments come after a document leaked last week, written by officials in the government’s Brexit department stated that Johnson’s plans to execute his deal by the end of 2020 presented would be arduous because of the need to create new protocols and systems for business in Northern Ireland.
“It was very clear when the deal was done,” he said in Brussels on Monday. “The EU has made it clear they want to minimise the impact on goods coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but at the same time goods coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will need to have some checks to ensure that the EU knows what is potentially coming into their market through Northern Ireland.”
MISREPRESENTATION
Conveney’s comments add to those from Arlene Foster, the Democratic Unionist party leader, who accused the prime minister of misrepresenting the Brexit deal and breaking his word to Northern Ireland. Conveney told RTE, that negotiators on both sides spent a lot of time nailing down details to leave no ambiguity.
“Goods going the other way from Northern Ireland into Great Britain will have far less requirement for checks at all. In fact, it will probably be limited to an export declaration, because, of course, that is a matter internally for the UK.
“So, there was always a distinction between goods coming from Great Britain into Northern Ireland versus goods going from Northern Ireland into Great Britain and we spent many hours discussing and negotiating that, and I think explaining it too.”