Work begins on Irish Sea post-Brexit border post

Construction work has finally started on a border control post in north Wales which will carry out post-Brexit checks on goods from the Republic of Ireland.

The facility at Holyhead should be operational sometime in 2025, four years after the UK left the EU.

When the UK left in 2021, goods from Great Britain going to the EU were immediately subject to customs and regulatory processes.

But the UK government was not ready to apply controls on EU goods and the introduction of those controls has been delayed on several occasions.

EU agrifood products arriving at English Channel ports started being checked earlier in 2024.

Products from the Republic of Ireland have not been checked due to a lack of facilities at Great Britain's west coast ports.

Holyhead in north Wales is one of the main ports for Irish goods entering Great Britain.

Sarah Morton, regional director for Kier Construction, the main contractor on the project, said the company's design and delivery team had worked closely with the Welsh government to plan the buiding of the post.

"We are excited that the project is underway," she said.

Goods from Northern Ireland going directly to Great Britain will not face any new checks or controls as the UK government has guaranteed they will have "unfettered access".

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In January, the UK government also confirmed it would not build a border control post at Cairnryan.

The Scottish port is the main access point for Northern Ireland goods entering Great Britain.

A border control post had been planned in order to check Republic of Ireland goods being sent to Scotland via Northern Ireland ports.

That was politically controversial as it raised the prospect of Northern Ireland goods also being caught up in the checks.

While the border control post plan has now been scrapped, lorries from the Republic of Ireland will still be subject to spot checks.