Port infrastructure in Belfast required for the Brexit Irish Sea Border will not be in place until 2023.
Belfast City Council received a “port health update” at a meeting of its Brexit Committee last week where elected representatives learned the latest on the controversial infrastructure required by the Northern Ireland Protocol element of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
The committee heard that hiring new port staff for the council site at Corry Place, close to Clarendon Dock, was “challenging” due to transient employment, and also that no new facilities were planned at the site until 2023.
Councillors heard from Siobhan Toland, Director of City Services at the council that “soundings” of further extensions of grace periods were “practical” for the council.
Under EU food safety rules, chilled meat products are not allowed to enter the single market from non-member countries such as the UK.
Sending sausages from Britain to Northern Ireland is no longer allowed under the protocol, but a so-called “grace period” has been in place since January where the rules don’t apply.
It was due to end in June but was extended until September 30th – however there is still no agreement on how to resolve the dispute between the UK government and the EU in the long term over checks between GB and NI.
Some checks that were already in place were suspended in Larne earlier this year over graffiti at the port that was described as a threat to some border staff checking goods. Staff were briefly withdrawn due to the threat by Mid and East Antrim Council.
Belfast Council saw no immediate threat to its port staff, who continued work with an increased supervisory presence from the PSNI.
Ms Toland told Belfast councillors: “The looming deadlines obviously have an impact on businesses, but also it has an impact on our service delivery. The soundings we are getting is that the grace period will probably be extended, but again, we remain in the hands of the negotiations.”
She told elected representatives the EU conducted an audit earlier this summer at Corry Place to see how the council was applying procedures. The results will be issued to the UK government in late August.
She said: “We got very positive feedback in terms of the professionalism of our approach, about the staff and the processes, and in the understanding that it is a complex area, with all the paperwork that has to be applied.”
She added: “Staffing remains a bit of a challenge. Recruitment is ongoing – we have almost filled all of the posts, although retention of the staff is something – a person starts one week and then is attracted to another post. But we are looking with Food Standards and DAERA at alternative options around the posts and the qualifications.
“The facilities in Corry place remain as they are, there is no further build with the DAERA joint structure that we would have. There is some background work at desktop level, but we estimate it will be 2023 before we see some new facilities. That makes the grace periods more practical, from a council perspective.”
The council covers food import controls for certain products, including fish and fish products, high risk food not of animal origin, organic products, plastic kitchenware from China and Hong Kong entering the EU single market, as well as some import safety.
Since the end of the transition period for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, Belfast City Council is required to also undertake these controls in relation to goods arriving into Northern Ireland from Britain.
