The Government’s planning for Brexit has from the start included issues relating to the continued effective use of the UK landbridge. This is a priority for the Government, given the importance of the landbridge in getting Irish products, in particular agrifood products, to market on continental Europe. This is an important issue with regard to protecting the competitiveness of our producers and ensuring continued unhampered access to the EU Single Market.
The issue of the landbridge and the facilitation of Irish traffic at ports, including Irish trucks at the port of Calais, has been raised actively at both Ministerial and official level.
At Ministerial level, the issue has been raised on a number of occasions, including at Minister Ross's meeting with Élisabeth Borne, the French Minister of Transport on 23 November 2018, and at my meetings with Minister for European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau on the margins of the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 16 October and again in Paris on 31 October 2018.
At official level, the Landbridge Project Group, which is chaired by my Department, and involves all relevant Government Departments, including the Department of Finance, the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Health, and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, has been instrumental in working closely with the European Commission and other affected Member States (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden) with a view to preparing EU ports to facilitate the transit of EU products through the UK once it becomes a third country through the use of EU rules on internal transit set out under the Union’s Custom Code.
As part of this process, officials are meeting regularly on a bilateral basis with relevant Member States, including France, to discuss, among other issues, the landbridge and infrastructure around ports and airports. Most recently, a cross-departmental delegation travelled to Paris for consultations on Brexit preparedness where the issue of the landbridge was comprehensively discussed, including the need for infrastructural solutions, such as designated lanes, at French ports to facilitate the free movement of Irish trucks transiting the UK. Officials also met with the European Commission for technical consultations on the landbridge in December 2018. In addition to meetings of Irish based officials, Embassy Paris has met with French authorities in relation to port infrastructure, including the Mayor of Calais, the Port of Calais, and the operators of Eurotunnel, and made representations regarding the segregation of Irish traffic arriving at the port of Calais and the Eurotunnel after transiting through the UK.
These meetings have been productive and there is an openness at all levels in France to work with us to ensure the efficient transit of Irish trucks through French ports. However, it is also clear that it will be very challenging in a no deal scenario for these ports to have the necessary permanent infrastructural solutions in place by 29 March 2019. The Government will continue to work with our partners in France to seek suitable temporary solutions as part of our no deal planning, while, at the same time, working with them on permanent solutions, particularly in an orderly withdrawal scenario, so that the landbridge can continue to be an effective route for our operators trading with the rest of the EU.
