Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister would accept that many people experience this as a hardening of the Border. They experience it as people being asked for documentation they were not asked for heretofore. Even during the days of conflict, this level of identification - people being asked to produce their passports - was seldom sought. This is now happening. Many people on this island who voted for the Good Friday Agreement understood that it was all about removing the Border and making it invisible, which has happened and has been an achievement by everyone concerned. I have spoken to people who are in the transport business. Certainly people who drive buses tell me that in recent times, this has become something that more regularly happens to them. Buses are being stopped and personnel go up and down buses and ask people for their passports or identity. This would have been a very rare occurrence up until probably 18 months or two years ago. It is now happening and people are afraid that it is an agenda to harden the Border as a precursor to whatever kind of Brexit may come.

We understand that the Government has an obligation and nobody is suggesting that there is no obligation in this regard. We are on an island and people who come here must go through ports or airports where they must produce identification anyway. The issue of the Border in Ireland should be something we recognise. The Minister has already said that it is a unique situation.

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