Irish border problem resurfaces as travellers may need two apps
RESIDENTS in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland may have to download two contact-tracing apps in order to safely travel across the border, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
In an echo of the infamous Irish border Brexit debate, Northern Ireland’s residents may be asked to download both the UK’s NHS contact-tracing app and an app being developed south of the border.
The Republic of Ireland has opted to work with Google and Apple to develop a contact-tracing app. But experts have warned this system will be impossible to make compatible with the UK’s app.
A spokesman for Stormont confirmed that there were urgent talks with their neighbour on how to facilitate people crossing the border for work or travel. The spokesman said options under consideration “may include individuals in border regions or working across the island needing to download both versions of the apps.”
Contact-tracing apps are being developed in a number of countries in an effort to track down those with coronavirus using smartphones. The apps work by emitting a Bluetooth signal. When two phones that have the signal meet, they automatically perform a “digital handshake”. If an app user then develops coronavirus symptoms, they can anonymously alert people with whom they have come into contact.
But Apple and Google’s solution relies on storing the data on the smartphone, which, the companies say, maintains privacy. The UK’s app, however, plans to transfer data on suspected matches to a central server.
The two approaches are incompatible because the UK’s is “centralised”, while the other is “decentralised” and “the systems work on different foundations,” said Michael Veale, a lecturer at University College London, working on a contact-tracing solution being developed in several European countries.
Because the systems cannot communicate, it could leave people travelling across the border vulnerable.
The admission from the Northern Irish administration that it could ask residents to download two apps comes in stark contrast to statements from Matthew Gould, NHSX chief executive, this week that a technical solution was being worked on to make the NHS app compatible with other countries.
Technical hitches with the NHS’s approach emerged this week amid a test of its app on the Isle of Wight, including problems that meant some iPhones failed to connect if they were left idle.
It was reported on Wednesday that the NHS was frantically evaluating the possibility of switching its system to that of Apple and Google. NHSX, its research arm, signed a contract worth £3.9million with a Swiss technology firm for an assessment of whether the system could and should be swapped.