Ministers failing to take Brexit Irish border dilemma seriously, say MPs
2 min read
The Government has been accused of failing to take concerns around keeping an open Irish border after Brexit seriously by a powerful Commons committee.
In a damning response, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said the Government's response to their concerns had left them "none the wiser" about ministers' plans to solve the issue.
Dr Andrew Murrison, the Conservative chair of the committee, has written to Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley accusing the Government of failing to "engage" with the committee’s key points.
He added that no new proposals on keeping an open and invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit had been communicated in nearly two years, while on some issues, the minister made “no attempt” to address the points.
Dr Murrison said responses given to key recommendations by the committee were "brief" and that four had been grouped together with only a total of four lines in response.
"It is only right that those who engaged with the inquiry, and stakeholders across Northern Ireland, are able to see a full and proper response from the Government," he wrote.
"We have published what we have received as we did not wish to add further delay to making public those comments we have received from the Government.
"We do, however, view this response as inadequate and request that the Northern Ireland Office look to provide further detail on our recommendations as soon as possible."
He specifically repeated demands for clarity on proposals to keep an open and invisible border, how a future EU-UK relationship could avoid border infrastructure and for an explanation on what "full alignment" with the EU would entail.
The Chair added that a response given on the issue of "fuel-smuggling" was not new information as it was the basis of a response to a written question in 2015.
"We are disappointed with the lack of detail provided by the Government in response to our report on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," he said in summary.
"We had hoped that the Government would recognise our intent and engage seriously with the issues we highlighted in our report. Instead we have been provided with little more information than when we published our findings three months ago.
"Time and again in the response the Government refer back to previously published documents or agreements to set out their position. They have provided the very broadest impression of their intentions when our recommendations asked for detail.
“As a Committee we were expecting more at this stage but are left none the wiser on progress made on the border conundrum."
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