Lord Dodds of Duncairn on the Northern Ireland Protocol
“Whatever process is now followed over the next few months Lord Frost will need to address both the trade and constitutional aspects of the Protocol having recognised it is not working or delivering for Northern Ireland.
Much of the daily coverage of Protocol related issues is focused on the restrictions on trade into Northern Ireland from Great Britain giving rise to the full range of emotions from minor irritation to anger depending on the impact felt by those affected. Some point to the benefits of the Protocol. But the easing of access to the EU market for the smaller number of N Ireland companies that trade with the EU, compared to the greater restrictions on trade for the much larger number of companies that trade with Great Britain, is an overall big net loss for Northern Ireland.
However, the damage runs much deeper than trade or economics. The Protocol represents an assault on democracy, on Northern Ireland’s position within the United Kingdom and on the principle of consent in the Belfast Agreement and subsequent agreements.
Protocol cheerleaders have sought to deny or play down these constitutional implications.
Internal trade is at the heart a nation’s constitutional fabric. Indeed, the Single Market is at the heart of the EU foundation treaties. The 6th Article of the Act of Union 1800 requires that everyone in the United Kingdom is entitled to the same privileges and be on the same footing as to goods in either country and in respect of trade in the United Kingdom. The recent High Court ruling in Belfast made clear the Protocol has blown this asunder.
The checks, the diversion of trade, the denial of access to products , the rising costs to consumers and business, the massive public expenditure running to hundreds of millions of pounds, the employment of an army of extra staff, are all consequences of the fundamental problem .
They are the symptoms, not the cause, and if Lord Frost only addresses the symptoms we will be back with more problems in a very short time.
Northern Ireland, despite being a full member of the UK customs union, is subject to EU customs law and EU single market rules for goods and agri food products, as well as the jurisdiction of the ECJ. That’s just for starters. That was the problem with Theresa May’s backstop and we were right to reject that and reject any notion of a border in the Irish Sea.
Laws are made in these areas for us by Brussels without a single MP or MLA having any vote on them. The recent revelation of the dumping of some 800 pieces of legislation into the joint committee, 666 of which had already been adopted, illustrates the massive democratic hole at the centre of the protocol arrangements. Such arrangements are in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights and represent taxation without representation. It is ironic indeed that some in the American administration do not seem to have apply the lessons of their own history to the problems that we now face in Northern Ireland. As far back as December 2017 a joint report agreed by the EU as well as the UK government stated that there would be no new regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK unless it was agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly. That must be honoured.
Lord Frost must propose radical surgery, not tinkering at the edges, if he is to restore democratic accountability and Northern Ireland’s equal standing within the Union.”
Nigel Alexander Dodds, Baron Dodds of Duncairn, OBE, PC, is a Northern Irish barrister, unionist politician and Life Peer
