Checks on goods from Britain to NI may be shelved before Protocol Bill becomes law, says DUP leader

Checks on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland could be scrapped before the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill becomes law, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said. He said it was likely to take between nine and 12 months for the legislation, which gives British ministers the power to unilaterally scrap most of the protocol, to pass all its stages in Parliament.

“It could take beyond a general election for these issues to be resolved and in the meantime do we just accept the current situation? I don’t think we should,” he told The Irish Times.

“We would want to find a solution that addresses the problem of checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the short to medium term whilst this Bill is being enacted.”

When the Bill was introduced last week, the British government said the protocol would continue to be implemented in the way it is now until the legislation is in place and ministers introduce a new system of checks. But the DUP leader said the checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea were presenting real problems for Northern Ireland businesses and consumers, particularly in the context of the cost of living crisis.

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“Stena Line, who are the main ferry operator across the Irish Sea tell us that 95 per cent of the goods they bring across the Irish Sea stay in Northern Ireland. They don’t leave Northern Ireland. So why do we need all the checks we have at the moment? I think that is a very simple question to ask,” he said.

“If goods are staying in Northern Ireland that’s one thing but if goods are going into the EU that has to be declared because those goods obviously have to comply with EU standards. So I think we could simplify this process. And why wait for legislation? I think we could simplify the process in the short term if there was a will to do it.”

Boris Johnson’s government want the DUP to restore the Stormont institutions and re-enter the Executive in response to the introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. But Mr Donaldson said he wanted to see the Bill making “real progress” through parliament before considering what steps to take.

“I think that it would be premature to conclude that there will be a particular point in the parliamentary process that we would take steps. We prefer to see progress made first and then to make our assessment at that stage. But clearly getting the Bill through the House of Commons is fundamentally important and obviously would represent significant progress,” he said.

The Bill is expected to win majority support in the Commons but could face strong resistance in the House of Lords, which can delay it for up to a year. Mr Donaldson said it was unlikely that the Northern Ireland secretary would approve another Assembly election this year if the DUP does not re-enter the Executive.

“We are ready to go back to the people if necessary, but I don’t think that that will change anything. Whatever the outcome of a fresh election, the reality is that the political institutions can only operate on the basis of a cross-community consensus. So in the absence of that consensus, an election won’t change the current dynamic,” he said.