Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister of State is correct that there will be no need to plan for Border installations. However, I come from north Louth where, with south Armagh, there is not a great level of, shall we say, respect for the British Government or trust in it what it will do. That leads to certain difficulties. Everyone is very worried about the trade impacts if the Irish protocol does not come into operation and if we do not have mitigation. Hard border infrastructure is also a worry. In recent years, there has been activity on Forkhill mountain, where there was once a major British army installation that was an absolute eyesore. When some of the bases were removed, what some would term surveillance equipment - telecommunications equipment, cameras and whatever - remained and it is still very secure. I visited the site today with a councillor from south Armagh to see it with my own eyes. I ask the Minister of State to bring this matter to the attention of the British Government so that we can find out exactly what this activity involves. For three days last week, there was a significant amount of activity by police and others in civilian-type vans. That also happened in October. At the time, a Sinn Féin representative who was dealing with the policing board was told that British army engineers had visited the site. We would like to know what exactly is going on. While I am not saying the British Government and British army will give that information, we wish to put the matter on the record. I want people to be concerned about what will happen in the Border region when we cannot rule out that Britain will crash out of the EU. I can provided additional information but I ask the Minister of State to bring this matter to whatever forum she can to try to get answers from the British Government. In addition, plans are needed for how Ireland would respond in the event of a hard border, which would be an absolute disaster. Sinn Féin's long-term solution for our interaction with the British Administration on this island will come as no surprise to anyone.

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