Clarity sought on checks for trucks leaving Rosslare Port T
HE issue of border checks on trucks arriving in the UK from Rosslare Europort which plan to travel onwards to another country within the EU was raised in the Dáil by Fianna Fáil Deputy James Browne.
‘Two thirds of our exports to the Continent, comprising three million tonnes or €100 billion worth of trade in 150,000 trucks per year, go over the landbridge,’ he said. ‘The UK exit from the EU will obviously complicate that.’
Rosslare Europort is owned by the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbours Company, established in 1898 under a UK statutory instrument, he said. ‘Its future is effectively controlled by the UK Government, which could dissolve that company in the morning if it wanted to. It might like the idea of having a port still in the EU after Brexit.’
In response, Tánaiste and Minister for Trade Simon Coveney said retaining the effective use of the landbridge post Brexit has been discussed at both political and official level with the UK and the EU. As a result of these contacts, the importance of maintaining the landbridge had been recognised through the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland in the draft Withdrawal Agreement.
‘This reaffirms the commitment of the UK to facilitate the efficient and timely transit through the UK of goods moving from Ireland to another EU member state or another country, or vice versa,’ he said. ‘To this end, I welcome the EU’s agreement that the UK may join the Common Transit Convention upon its departure from the EU and that a number of the formal steps to allow this to happen have been completed. The UK’s accession to the Common Transit Convention will play an important role in ensuring Ireland’s access to other EU member states via the UK landbridge.’
He said the Common Transit Convention effectively means that if one seals a container in Dublin and it is going to France, Belgium or the Netherlands, it should be able to be transported across the British landbridge and back into the Single Market without being checked. While it may have to be scanned while passing through, the goods should not have to be checked.
‘That is what we are trying to achieve in order that Irish trucks will not be treated as coming from a third country outside the EU and re-entering the Single Market,’ he said.