NO HARD BORDER... BUT AT A COST
Random ‘technical checks’ on UK goods on Irish roads is one concession
THE Irish Government has accepted a series of compromises including random ‘technical checks’ on British goods and on all UK customs, in return for no hard border, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned. This temporary border agreement will last for just two years.
Sources in Government agree the Taoiseach will receive strong criticism over a number of concessions made to Britain in an effort to finalise Brexit talks.
The agreement is to have ‘technical checks’ in the Irish Sea – which will aggravate Unionists – and random ‘technical checks’ in Irish territory which will aggravate a swathe of Opposition parties here.
The technical checks, which Ireland insisted they be called, could be carried out by EU customs officials, a new joint Ireland/Britain regulatory body or even private contractors, the MoS has learned.
A senior Government source said language and the use of the term ‘technical checks’ was pivotal in securing agreement. An EU proposal to call customs inspections ‘controls’ was rejected because of Irish Government fears it sounded like a hard border.
‘It has to be called “technical checks”, the EU wanted to say controls and Dublin was apoplectic about this,’ said the source, ‘and Ireland has been constantly talking about a technical checking system rather than a control system because a control means a border and infrastructure and the worst case scenario – a hard border.’
Senior sources in Dublin and Brussels last night outlined to the MoS the detail of a deal near completion between the various parties.
Ireland will accept that the whole of the UK will be in a special arrangement which is what they are looking for on customs. A Government source said last night: ‘It was supposed to be a backstop for Northern Ireland but it’ll be a backstop for the whole of the UK.’
This is effectively what British Prime Minister Theresa May has been seeking.
What will also cause problems for Leo Varadkar is that the arrangements on customs and regulation will only be for a transitional twoyear period. Then they will be renegotiated for the full UK exit.
A Government source involved in the planning said: ‘The deal could only be time limited until the end of the transition when, of course, the Irish Government will argue we are going to move to this totally new relationship.
‘Now the wording in that will have to be parsed and analysed but this will kind of be a transition for all of the UK until we reach the new relationship and then it would have to be looked at again.’
There is now a belief in Dublin and London that a deal can be struck on the border that the Irish are calling a ‘fudge’.
However there are fears this will be politically damaging for Mr Var- adkar and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney as it falls short of a backstop guarantee.
Mr Varadkar met with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and EC President Donald Tusk in Brussels last week and appeared to believe talks had gone well.
Mrs May is expected to publish her proposals for the border and customs issues shortly and Mr Barnier will also issue proposals.
‘My sense is that we are moving towards a deal and that it will require flexibility on the Irish position,’ said a Brussels source last night in a detailed briefing.
The movement from the Government away from the cast-iron guarantees it spoke of last December will be a problem. A Government source agreed: ‘Where the Taoiseach wants to land this is to show some flexibility where there might be some criticism from the Shinners and others. While we have shown flexibility on the backstop, the main thing is we’ve got a deal that will minimise the adjustment in the Irish economy.
‘There is an acceptance that Leo oversold this last year.’
There have been significant negotiations between the two governments in the past week.
‘There is ticktacking between London and Dublin in the first instance, that’s why the spinning that went on this week was all positive towards where Mrs May is landing,’ said the source. ‘We haven’t seen the proposal but we know broadly speaking what it’s going to be. That is what is going to be discussed at a full European level.’
‘Dublin could come to an agreement with London but we don’t want to do that because we want it to be done by the full 27, if it’s not, it would undermine them. It’s like a choreography at the moment.’
The dilemma facing negotiators is that Europe is prepared to give Northern Ireland a special status in the Customs Union.
‘But the Brits are now saying that if we are moving on the backstop, it has to be a backstop for the whole of the UK. And the same deal for Northern Ireland must be the same deal for the rest of the UK, that’s the problem the rest of Europe have. They’ll do it for Northern Ireland but they won’t do it for the UK,’ said a source working for the Irish Government in Brussels.
There is a belief that the ‘technical checks’ agreement can satisfy all.
‘The British are prepared to put checks on the Irish Sea which the Unionists will go mad about. That’s the price that she [Mrs May] is prepared to pay.
‘They could be anywhere, they could be in the ports, or alternatively they could be as a transit is being made, in other words as a truck is going from one area to the next. There could be a spot check, it wouldn’t have to be in the ports or it could be at the point of loading.’
These checks could be made randomly on the road.
‘That can happen at the moment anyway… At any stage a cattle truck can be stopped by what is effectively an all-Ireland vetinerary registration system. It happens in Northern Ireland and it happens in the Republic. That will be extended to other agri products and goods, there won’t be any involvement of services. ‘The Brits are saying that will satisfy the Europeans because anything coming into Ireland from the UK will satisfy the European norms.
A ‘fudge’ that will only last for two years ‘It will require flexibility on the Irish position’