Uncertain future for £200m port infrastructure after EU deal

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 through government-operated border control posts (Bs) at Northern Ireland ports.

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

In April, a government minister said new Bs 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 Bs 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 through a B where they can be checked and paperwork inspected.

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

Under the of the UK's 2019 deal with the EU, the Bs needed to be hugely expanded to deal with the volume of trade from Great Britain - for example the Larne B 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.

When the new deal is implemented, all of the UK will return to following EU agrifood rules.

That means checks will no longer be required on Great British goods entering Northern Ireland, drastically reducing the volume of goods ing through Bs.

The facilities will not be entirely redundant as a small volume of non-EU goods being shipped directly to Northern Ireland will still require inspections and Larne will continue its pre-Brexit role in livestock inspections.

On Tuesday, DUP MP Sammy Wilson asked the prime minister if construction could now stop at the Larne B, 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 B 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 B 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 Bs.