Brexit: 'NI Protocol won't be changed' - Coveney

Pacemaker

The Northern Ireland Protocol agreed between the UK and the EU "isn't going to be changed", the Irish foreign affairs minister has said.

Unionists have criticised the mechanism for causing trade issues between Great Britain and NI.

Simon Coveney said there were problems with implementation, but that the protocol contained "flexibilities".

NI First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster accused Mr Coveney of being "tone-deaf" to unionists' concerns.

The protocol was designed to ensure the free movement of goods across the Irish border, but critics argue it has created a border in the Irish Sea, with additional checks being placed on many goods moving between GB and NI.

• What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?

Mrs Foster said the protocol was opposed by "all of unionism" and was fundamentally flawed.

Responding to Mr Coveney, the first minister added: "He claims to support the Belfast Agreement but the balance in the Belfast Agreement doesn't seem to matter."

Pacemaker

On Tuesday night, the UK government wrote to the EU, calling for temporary lighter enforcement of the rules to be extended until early 2023.

Virtual talks between the Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, his EU counterpart, Vice-President Maros Šefčovič and Northern Ireland's leaders were held on Wednesday.

Later the UK government and the EU issued a joint statement, which said they would work "intensively" to quell tensions caused by trade concerns.

It follows the withdrawal of staff from NI ports after threats were issued.

On Thursday, Mr Coveney told BBC News NI there were some "genuine concerns" with the protocol, although his government wanted to be helpful in ensuring its implementation.

"The flexibilities that are already there for Northern Ireland are grace periods for certain elements of the protocol that don't need to be implemented straight away in Northern Ireland, for example supermarkets don't have to have health certifications in order to import products from GB," he outlined.

"We want the protocol to function in a way that works for everybody, north and south on the island of Ireland.

"We talk to and listen to businesses in Northern Ireland as well as south of the border and we want to work with them."

The Irish minister said the row on Friday over whether the EU would trigger Article 16, which allows an override of the protocol, created more tension.

It will take a few months, Mr Coveney added, "to make sure it can be implemented in full".

Arlene Foster said there was "no risk" to the EU single market "from goods coming into Northern Ireland for circulation and sale wholly within Northern Ireland from trusted and reliable traders".

She added if the Irish and British governments, and the European Union, "believe the way forward is to ignore the majority of people in Northern Ireland then they need to say that".

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his government would act "legislatively" or by invoking Article 16 if other solutions cannot be reached.

Sinn Féin President Mary-Lou McDonald said it would be "deeply reckless" for the UK to consider a "tit-for-tat" response.

Ms McDonald said there was a need to "dial the rhetoric down".

"We need cool heads, we need calm mature leadership, those teething problems that do exist need to be identified and need to be ironed out," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We don't need melodrama."

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February 04, 2021 at 10:05PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55932434