The Northern Ireland Protocol is the problem, not Gordon Lyons, DUP tells Sinn Fein

South Down MP Chris Hazzard had said that Mr Lyons did not have the authority to stop work at the sites.

On Friday, the DUP minister stopped work to build permanent inspection facilities for checks on agri-food goods arriving from Great Britain.

Mr Lyons told the PA news agency on Friday evening: “I’ve just let Executive colleagues know that today I instructed my department to halt work on a range of issues relating to work at the ports.”

He also stopped further recruitment of inspection staff for the port facilities and said charges would not be levied at the ports on traders bringing goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

Ongoing Irish Sea trade checks, which are taking place at existing repurposed port buildings and other temporary facilities, will continue.

Mr Hazzard, Sinn Fein’s Brexit spokesman, claimed that no Stormont ministers got advance warning of the move.

It relates to ongoing work on new inspection facilities at ports like Belfast and Larne.

Mr Hazzard said that Mr Lyons’ decision to brief the media before political colleagues was “pathetic”.

“I think this was a very foolish solo run from Gordon Lyons ” Mr Hazzard told BBC The View programme.

“It’s a stunt that’s inevitably going to deliver nothing but prolonged instability, and uncertainty that is certain to damage confidence in our local economy.”

Mr Hazzard said the DUP were attempting to paint the protocol as the problem.

But DUP MLA Christopher Stalford responded: “It is the Northern Ireland Protocol which is creating instability and threatening our local economy. The economic illiteracy of Sinn Fein was demonstrated only a few weeks ago when Martina Anderson attempted to dispute the claim that Great Britain is Northern Ireland’s largest market.”

Mr Stalford added: “It’s about time Sinn Fein and the other protocol cheerleaders stopped denying reality. Instead of downplaying issues or claiming that problems don’t exist they should be working with those of us attempting to fix them and to remove the barriers to trade between Northern Ireland and our single biggest market.”

The issue is expected to be raised when the executive meets today to discuss the plan to ease Northern Ireland out of lockdown.

Jim Allister MLA said the reunification of the UK needed to be achieved by scrapping the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The TUV leader said: “The game plan of the protocol is becoming increasingly clear. At its core is the decoupling of our trade links with GB and their replacement with ever closer all-Ireland dependence. EU officials have said as much. The long term political strategy is obvious.

“Yet, in their promotional lies the EU and UK proclaimed aversion to trade distortion. But, this is the inevitable outworking of a protocol which retains us in a foreign single market for goods, subject to a foreign customs code and VAT regime and all of this implemented through foreign laws and overseen by a foreign court.

“Courtesy of the pernicious outworking of the Protocol the constitutional imperative is now for the reunification of the United Kingdom. Hence, the necessity for the Protocol to go in all its parts.”

Meanwhile, a leading cargo firm has said time and money is being wasted chasing unnecessary paperwork for businesses exporting from Northern Ireland to the EU.

Belfast Port and Northern Irish hauliers are losing out because of red tape associated with duties which do not need to be paid, Quay Cargo Services said.

The firm is based in Belfast and traditionally organised exports to the continent using the Great Britain land bridge.

Since the end of the post-Brexit transition period it has routed shipments using the more costly route via the Republic of Ireland then direct to France.

Manager Gary Stewart said: “These are our livelihoods and it is not just Quay Cargo and the 16 people we have, it is all the other drivers.

“It is all those local organisations and hauliers that are losing out, and on top of that you have Belfast Harbour losing out.

“It is ridiculous to me that we are doing this to protect something that is not even jeopardised.

“The paperwork systems we are being asked to adhere to are like something from the 1980s.

“It is not just electronic paperwork they need, it is original paperwork.”

He said to move a trailer from Belfast to Paris via the UK would require a bond issued to protect the authorities against non-payment of duties, requiring the necessary documents.

All these documents need to be original copies, which are issued from registered addresses.

On entering France, the same bond and documents need to be discharged at a customs office, or by an agent who is registered to be able to do that.

No duties are ultimately payable.

Mr Stewart said: “This archaic system, is designed to protect against outstanding duties/taxes.

“But there are no duties collectable, even if the cargo were to remain in Great Britain, so why is the road haulage industry being asked to do this?

“Not only is there a cost to obtaining such documents, but time is wasted in physically chasing paperwork.

“We need a more pragmatic system, to avoid such a waste of time, money and wasted additional mileage.”

Mr Stewart’s firm has developed an extensive client portfolio representative of every major business sector in Northern Ireland including international market leaders in the healthcare, heavy engineering and the food and drink industries.

It operates services to France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Benelux countries.

Mr Stewart wrote to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of MPs venting his frustrations with the system.

He said he understood why any Government would want to know what their trade statistics are.

“I believe that this can be accomplished, by completing a simple electronic export declaration.

“No bond would be needed for these, because there is no duty to be protected.

“Can common sense be brought to bear on this subject and can we get a system that facilitates trade, rather than inhibits it?”

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