Ms Una Boyd:

On who the electronic travel authorisation system will impact, the current situation is that anyone who is what is called a "non-visa national" can enter the UK as a visitor without having to apply in advance for permission. Since Brexit, that includes EU citizens and nationalities such as Americans, Brazilians, Canadians and Australians. In essence, people from a non-visa background, when they cross the Border into Northern Ireland, are used to not needing to apply for permission in advance. There are no restrictions on those people entering Northern Ireland as visitors. That has been in place for a long time.

Two groups will be affected by ETAs. The first are those people who have been living in Border areas in the Republic of Ireland, which this system has allowed to live a very fluid cross-Border life. If they need to pop into the nearest shop in Northern Ireland, if they have family who live in Northern Ireland or if they have someone they are caring for, they have never had to apply in advance in order to make those journeys. A non-visa national is entering as a visitor. It means that person is restricted in what he or she is allowed to do when he or she is in the UK.

First of all, it is time-limited, usually to six months. Only permitted activities are allowed. Most people apply for a visitor visa at some point. It essentially means that one can do such things as visit family, tourist activities, go to see the Titanic museum, go shopping and access services. There are also permitted work engagements under the UK visitor visa, which include things like meetings, training, interviews and so on. It covers a huge range of activities. Most people residing in Border areas will go up and down in a day, so the time limit has never really affected them. These are the people who would be caught. We are not necessarily talking about people who want to work in Northern Ireland. They will need permission to work in the UK. That may be through a frontier worker visa or they may need to apply for another UK work visa. These are people doing ordinary, daily life activities. The practical implications for people residing in the Border areas are huge.

There has been a push to promote all-island tourism. People who fly into Dublin, especially Americans, Canadians and Australians, who represent a substantial number of tourists here, are used to being able to travel freely over the Border without checks. This has been raised with the UK Government. The Irish Government has raised it directly. Both Stephen Farry and Baroness Margaret Ritchie raised it in the House of Commons and House of Lords. The UK Government's response has essentially been to say that people will get used to it and also that there has always been a requirement to have the correct visa. I do not think it is engaging with the fact that this is a fundamental change to the UK immigration system that will completely change a way of life for people here.