Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:

“An Assembly answer to a recent Question I asked reveals the astounding scale of checks at our ports imposed on ‘imports’ from the rest of the United Kingdom, and the cost thereof.

“In the month of October alone there were over 24,000 checks carried out in respect of 12,000 movements in the category of foodstuffs, plants and live animals (only a small proportion of such would have operated pre-Protocol). This required 85 DAERA staff at a cost of £435,181.00. This is only for one month, suggesting an annual cost of approximately £5-6m. And all this at a time when grace periods still operate in respect of the bulk of ‘imports’, demonstrating how devastating ‘rigorous implementation’ of the full Protocol would be.

‘The absurdity and economic dislocation of this snapshot of Protocol tyranny, operated by a DUP minister, is shocking and wholly antithetical to our supposed position as a part of the U.K. This fettering of our trade – with much more planned under the Protocol – is the driver to increasingly separate us from GB.”