Building site at Irish border raises fears of checkpoints
IRELAND has turned an old customs post on its border into a construction site, raising fears it is being prepared as a checkpoint in case of a no-deal Brexit.
The site of the old customs post in Lifford was demolished but resurfaced earlier this year with a “keep out” sign fixed to the entry gates.
Meanwhile, Northern Irish police have cancelled the sale of a police station in Castlederg as a precaution, in case backup is required to maintain order. Border communities fear that a return to checkpoints and customs posts along the 310-mile crossing will wreck the economy and undermine the peace process. Dissident Republican groups have already threatened to attack any new border infrastructure.
As a result, most political parties in Northern Ireland are supporting the controversial Irish backstop clause. The main exception is the DUP, who say the backstop would carve off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
Local politicians said they had for months been asking the Irish government about the old customs post site. Ireland’s Office of Public Works told The Daily Telegraph it did not “currently” have any plans.
This has done little to reassure the community. “The closer we get to a nodeal Brexit the more it looks like this will have to be a customs post,” said Gary Doherty, a councillor for Sinn Fein. “For years nothing has happened and then in the run-up to March they clear away the buildings. It’s a strange coincidence.” A local businessman said some investors asked to buy the site to test if it was part of plans for a hard border and were told it was not for sale.
Daniel Mccrossan, a Northern Ireland Assembly member for the SDLP in the neighbouring town of Strabane on the UK side of the border, said: “I hope there is no hardening [of infrastructure] on that area, as Lifford and Strabane is one border community.”
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal on Oct 31, Ireland would have to enforce customs and regulatory checks its side of the border even if the UK didn’t do so. The EU has reportedly warned Ireland in private that it risks being ejected from the single market if it fails to honour this commitment.
Despite this, details of how the Irish government intends to manage border checks remains unclear, largely because border posts on the south side are politically contentious in Dublin.
The Telegraph understands a row broke out with Brussels in January when a European Commission official let slip a hard border would have to go up after a no-deal Brexit. Spokesman Margaritis Schinas said: “If you push me to speculate … I think it is pretty obvious, there will be a hard border.” Dublin strongly denied this and the Commission later backtracked on the claim.
Dublin and Brussels were thought to be talking about checks away from the border, but both conceded this was unlikely to remove all trade friction and could even fall foul of the EU’S strict single market rules.