Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

So far, the transition to the latest phase of controls seems to have gone well. There have been no reports of delays or congestion impacting Irish land bridge movements through Britain's east coast ports. We remain vigilant, however, because the longer term impacts of the new controls on Irish business and trade patterns will take some time to emerge. We will continue to engage with stakeholders.

The controls introduced at the end of January did represent a significant change to the way Irish businesses export to Britain, especially agrifood businesses. Since the end of January, Irish businesses exporting to Britain need to make customs declarations for consignments in advance of sending their goods. If they are exporting medium or high-risk SPS goods, which includes agrifoods, they must also pre-notify each consignment on the UK SPS import system, and in some cases obtain an export health certificate from the relevant competent authority in Ireland.

To date, we have not seen a significant change overall in exports to Britain as a result of these specific changes, but it is early days and we are continuing to monitor trade patterns very carefully given the importance of the British market for Irish exports, especially in agrifood. We have a Brexit stakeholders' consultation group, which I met with only very recently, and we meet on a regular basis to take stock of this. Our officials are constantly in touch as well.

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