Uncertain future for £200m NI port infrastructure

Almost £200m worth of recently-built port infrastructure in Northern Ireland faces partial redundancy when this week’s EU-UK deal is eventually implemented.

Food products and plants being shipped from Great Britain currently have to pass through government-operated border control posts (BCPs) at Northern Ireland ports.

That will no longer be necessary when an agrifood deal is implemented.

In April, a government minister said new BCPs at Belfast, Larne, Foyle and Warrenpoint would be “operationally ready” by July.

Baroness Hayman said the government had committed to “a maximum funding envelope of £192.3m” for the facilities, of which £71m had been spent by February this year.

The BCPs are being paid for by the UK government but will be handed over to the Northern Ireland Executive when complete.

After Brexit, Northern Ireland effectively stayed inside the EU’s single market for goods while the rest of the UK left.

The EU has strict rules on food, plants and animals entering its single market including the stipulation that they must pass through a BCP where they can be checked and paperwork inspected.

Northern Ireland’s ports already had limited BCPs for inspecting animals from Great Britain and food products from outside the EU.

Under the terms of the UK’s 2019 deal with the EU, the BCPs needed to be hugely expanded to deal with the volume of trade from Great Britain – for example the Larne BCP is being expanded to cover a 10-acre site.

This was controversial among unionists as it was the most obvious physical manifestation of the “Irish Sea border” created by the 2019 deal.

On Tuesday, DUP MP Sammy Wilson asked the prime minister if construction could now stop at the Larne BCP, which is in his constituency.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “I want to ensure that we have real improvement in the situation on the ground and do not go to unnecessary expense.

“I genuinely believe that, for Northern Ireland, this was a big step in the right direction.”

The new deal also raises questions about the BCP at Holyhead in north Wales which is being built to inspect food products from the Republic of Ireland arriving into Great Britain.

Regulatory inspections of EU food products arriving into Great Britain will also be scrapped when the deal is implemented.

Last week the Welsh government said the majority of building work on the Holyhead site is ‘”now nearing completion” and is due to be finished by the end of the summer.

The UK government is reportedly considering selling at least one of the BCP sites in Great Britain.

It’s understood Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is at an early stage of assessing the future of the Northern Ireland BCPs.