Edwin Poots to bring paper on NI port checks before Executive next week
Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has said he is aiming to bring a paper on the future implementation of post-Brexit checks in Northern Ireland by next week.
It comes after a pre-action letter was served by a unionist group, which claimed the checks at ports required by the Northern Ireland Protocol are unlawful because they have not received Executive approval.
The group had stated an intention to commence judicial review proceedings if the minister did not declare an intent to refer decisions on the checks and inspections to his Executive colleagues for approval.
Mr Poots did not refer the protocol checks to the Executive for approval before the introduction of the arrangements in January last year.
Speaking on View From Stormont, the DUP minister said his officials are currently preparing the paper.
“That paper, I believe, is close to being ready and as soon as I get it, then I'll give it some extensive scrutiny," he said.
“So it may be possible this week, but at the latest next week we'll be presenting a paper to go before the Executive. That remains to be seen whether that gets onto the agenda.”
“But if Sinn Féin choose not to put it on the agenda, that in itself is a decision and therefore something that I have to respond to.”
He said the paper would ask for checks to continue, which he said he knows DUP ministers will not support.
“I don’t believe the Executive will be able to give the support that is necessary to carry those checks out,” he said.
Sinn Féin have indicated they will not allow the paper to come before the Executive.
In that case, Minister Poots said: “Then I’m left with clear court case law which identifies that I need to get the permission of the Executive and therefore I have to withdraw the staff that are in the ports in the absence of that, and that’s fairly clear to me.”
He added: “Sinn Féin will actually force that position should they not allow it onto the Executive table.”
Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph, discuss the issues surrounding the tensions that can exist between government and the Civil Service