In wake of Brexit, the most practical and economic solution to Irish border is customs control at ports

I AM a unionist who voted to remain in the EU for economic reasons and especially since the UK economy is ver y fragile (£1,800bn in debt). I work in the private sector and over 40% of our sales are exported to other EU countries.

I feel sorr y for the UK Government, because the Irish border has been a major stumbling block throughout their Brexit negotiations with EU countries.

In my opinion, the most practical and economic solution to the Irish border is to have customs controls at our ports. If there is a hard Brexit, then Northern Ireland goods will still move freely through our ports to mainland Britain, but tarif fs can be applied to RoI goods. RoI only exports less than 2% of their goods to Northern Ireland and businesses could be made to declare these.

Unfortunately, the DUP and some Tories are against this proposal. However, if they supported customs controls at our ports it would deliver the following benefits to the UK:

1. It removes the Irish border as a stumbling block to the UK’s Brexit negotiations with the EU and;

2. The Irish border becomes an EU/RoI problem.

Leo Varadkar was the f irst person to advocate the above proposal on having customs controls at the ports and not the Irish border.

It was not really in Leo Varadkar’s interest for the UK to have customs controls at Northern Ireland ports, but he knew if he suggested it, the DUP would oppose it and the Irish border would become a UK problem and a major obstacle to the UK’s Brexit negotiations.

It is just a pity Leo Varadkar and Sinn Fein did not apply the same principle to Brexit — ie support Brexit, because the DUP would have then voted to Remain.

ALAN MARTIN

Por tstewar t, Co Londonderry