Passport checks for UK visitors entering Ireland are undermining the Common Travel Area

Checks on UK passengers going through Irish airports are undermining common travel arrangements between the two countries – and “typical” of Dublin’s attitude, a DUP MP has said.

Sammy Wilson was reacting to a comment from Conservative peer Lord Moylan, who was asked to queue up to present his passport at Shannon Airport when coming off a direct flight from London at the weekend.

placeholder image — DUP MP Sammy Wilson says the UK government would be perfectly entitled to introduce reciprocal checks on Irish travellers arriving at UK airports. Photo: Peter Powell/PA Wire

The opposition transport spokesman queried on the social media site X if the Republic of Ireland was “unaware that she is in a Common Travel Area (CTA) with the UK or are the benefits of that arrangement purely one-way?”

The two nations extend a right to free movement, as well as voting and other entitlements, to each other’s citizens under the CTA. The arrangement predates the European Union and has remained after Brexit.

However, there have been an increase in border checks for non-UK or Irish nationals in recent years – as both governments attempt to curb illegal immigration.

Politicians in Northern Ireland and mainland UK have raised concerns that the Republic has been used as a back door by foreign nationals – particularly from EU states – into the UK.

Concerns have also been raised about the Irish policy of stopping busses entering the Irish state from Northern Ireland – with claims of racial profiling of passengers.

East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson says that checks on UK passengers entering Ireland show that Dublin wants the benefits of the CTA arrangements, “but are not prepared to share those benefits with the other party”.

“It doesn’t surprise me. It was the same with them stopping busses going over the border to check the identity of people. And yet they insisted during Brexit negotiations that you couldn’t have even a camera on the border, otherwise it broke the Belfast Agreement – and it was going to cause the IRA to revive itself.

“I think we’re all aware of the hypocrisy and the taking nature of the Irish” he said.

The DUP MP said the UK government would now be perfectly entitled to check passports on flights entering the country from Ireland.

The Irish government has been asked for comment.