Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

6 o’clock

Ensuring the UK land bridge remains an effective route to market for Irish and other EU traders has been a key priority for the Government for some time in the context of Brexit. The UK's accession to the common transit convention is a key and positive step. It is important to recognise that because the UK Government has decided to be part of that convention in an effort to be helpful. This allows EU goods to transit through the UK without undergoing full customs export and import formalities on entry and exit. In partnership with other EU land bridge countries and the European Commission, we recently addressed some sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, challenges affecting Irish-EU goods transiting the UK back into the EU. We will continue to work with these partners on land bridge issues.

I have had numerous discussions with my counterparts in the UK and across the EU. All understand the importance we attach to maintaining the land bridge as an effective route to market. The UK Government published its border operating manual recently. Officials from a number of Departments held a voice chat with their British counterparts to better understand their approach to applying controls on goods moving between the EU and Great Britain, including transit. There remains a risk of substantial delays on parts of the land bridge route between the UK and France, for example, Dover-Calais, the Eurotunnel and possibly Holyhead. While we can work to address these at the EU end, there is little we can do to mitigate the impact on Irish traders arising from queues in the UK. In other words, what we have done is effectively secured a commitment from countries such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands that when goods arrive from the UK on Irish trucks, these trucks will enter the green lane and will not be treated the same as UK trucks arriving because the Irish trucks will be coming from another part of the Single Market and re-entering the Single Market. The challenge for us will be in the UK. If there are significant traffic queues to get on ships in Dover, for example, I do not envisage a situation where Irish trucks will be allowed to skip the queue. That is where the blockage is likely to be.

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