A cross-party House of Commons committee has begun an inquiry into the future of the Border after Brexit, assessing the impact of different potential relationships between the United Kingdom and the EU.
Laurence Robertson, the Conservative MP who chairs the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said the inquiry should produce recommendations before the start of formal Brexit negotiations.
“There is a desire on all sides to maintain the existing open border with the Republic. Our inquiry will assess the different options open to the Government that will achieve that objective, with the aim of producing recommendations and conclusions ahead of the start of formal negotiations between the UK and the EU,” he said.
The inquiry will consider the benefits which currently derive from the existing open border arrangements and the options for maintaining the Common Travel Area. It will look at options for the border if the UK was not part of the EU customs union or the Single European Market or both.
The MPs will also examine proposals for Northern Ireland to enjoy some form of special status within a post-Brexit UK. And they will ask what lessons can be drawn from the other parts of the EU that have an external land border, such as Norway’s with Sweden and Finland and the frontier between Switzerland and its neighbours.
Meanwhile, the DUP MP for North Antrim has predicted that the Republic of Ireland will follow the UK and decide to exit the European Union by 2020.
Ian Paisley jnr, the Westminster representative for North Antrim, told The Irish Times he believes the written submissions to the inquiry, which have to be in by October 21st, are welcome but will be "much of a muchness".
“We are into our first phase of the negotiation round which is about establishing what has to be negotiated and who is going to do the negotiations,” he said. “In the medium term, the idea that people are going to have all of the answers about the impact of the Border and stuff like that, they are not going to have that.
“We did a bit of work on this in our last inquiry and we had the Secretary of State and professors from various universities and they weren’t able to give us clarity at that point and I doubt they will be able to give us much more.”
Mr Paisley said it was good to have the discussion and raise awareness of the issue but he is “utterly convinced” on there will be no changes to the Border and that trade will continue to flow .
“By 2020, I think the Irish Republic will have applied to come out of the EU anyway,” he added. “Their trade interests, 90 per cent of their trade interests rest with the UK so this is where they are going to. They joined with us, a year after us and they will exit a year or two after us is my analysis.”
Prime minister Theresa May has stated that she does not wish to see a hard border on the island of Ireland and the North’s First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have said they want to see the free movement of people, goods and services continuing.
