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Written question asked by Baroness Deech (Crossbench) on Monday, 2 July 2018, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 16 July 2018. It was answered by Lord Callanan (Conservative) on Monday, 16 July 2018 on behalf of the Department for Exiting the European Union.

Borders: Northern Ireland

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Lars Karlsson for the European Parliament Smart Border 2.0 Avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland for customs control and the free movement of persons, published November 2017.

Answer

The report shows a misunderstanding of the Northern Ireland and Ireland context and proposes a fundamental redesign of the Common Travel Area (CTA), which neither the UK, Ireland or the EU have ever envisaged.

Whilst there are some parallels with the work we are developing on the wider UK-EU border model that would apply, for example, to the border between Dover and Calais, this report proposes a form of hard border, albeit an efficiently managed one, for the Northern Ireland-Ireland land border and is therefore fundamentally inconsistent with Government policy and the commitments we have made.

It is unacceptable to suggest any solutions which would require physical infrastructure at the border. Both the UK Government and Irish Government have explicitly ruled this out, as the removal of physical checks and security installations has been a key dividend of the peace process.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL9131
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Borders Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Brexit
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk