The British government's response to concerns about Brexit preparations raised by a report from the House of Commons' Northern Ireland Affairs Committee have been dismissed as inadequate by the committee's chairman.
In a letter to Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley, Conservative MP Andrew Murrison complained that her response to the report's 14 recommendations were brief and failed to engage with the content of the document.
“The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee wishes the government well in its work and undertook this inquiry to highlight the key elements that need to be addressed to provide a solution for the Border which meets the needs of the citizens, businesses and industries of Northern Ireland. 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,” he said.
‘Expecting more’
“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. We are obliged to press the government for answers. I have written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to give her an opportunity to expand on the response we have received.”
Expert witnesses
The report, which was the product of months of hearings with dozens of expert witnesses, called for more details on how the British government would deal with immigration, the movement of goods, customs and security co-operation after Brexit. It asked which EU rights people in Northern Ireland who hold Irish passports will enjoy after Brexit and how those rights will be funded.
In his letter to Ms Bradley, Mr Murrison said her response made no attempt to clarify which rights would be available to such citizens after Brexit and that she had failed to address some of the report’s recommendations at all.
The “balanced and considered” report was the product of “many months of work” and had deserved serious consideration by the British government, he complained.
