BRITISH government proposals that would require non-Irish EU citizens to have an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) pass before crossing the border into the north have been branded "unworkable".
Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry, who first raised concerns about the plans in The Irish News in October 2020, said the US-style visa waiver was "both wrong in principle and in practice".
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis has played down the implications of the proposal and insisted the new measures will not result in checks at the border. However, the Irish government has raised serious concerns, with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney appealing for "special treatment" for Ireland.
The north's honorary Polish consul Jerome Mullen said the requirement for an ETA had the potential to cause "huge disruption and inconvenience".
He estimated that the population of non-Irish EU citizens in the Republic was around 250,000 and that many would have family or employment connections in the north.
"It raises all sorts of questions, from who it will affect to who will be responsible for enforcing it," he said.
"Because of yet more of the outrageous consequences of Brexit, people hoping to travel up to Newry or Derry for a day's shopping or to visit family will have to think again."
Mr Farry, who plans to meet British Home Office Minister Kevin Foster next week to discuss the new rules, told The Irish News that reassurances there would be no routine border checks or any impact on the Common Travel Area "don’t actually engage with the real concerns and the groups of people who would be impacted".
"The UK’s intended ETA is both wrong in principle and in practice," he said.
"It would be unworkable in the context of the island of Ireland, and bring significant impacts on non-Irish residents who make regular journeys across
the border sometimes on a daily basis and for tourism."
The North Down MP said there needed to be "at least some carve out from the ETA proposal to cover Ireland".
Sinn Féin’s leader in the Seanad Niall Ó Donnghaile described the plans as "ludicrous".
"The British government is pushing forward with a requirement for citizens who are not Irish or British citizens to apply for travel clearance if they wish to travel from the south to the north of Ireland," he said.
"When we committed to the withdrawal agreement, we did not say that there would be no hard border for some people but that there would be for others – we said that there would be no return to a hard border – sin é."
