The chairman of an influential House of Lords committee has said Northern Ireland must not become the collateral damage of the UK’s departure from the EU, as the first of six reports on the impact of Brexit on Britain are published.



Tim Boswell has also said that the impact of Brexit on the Republic of Ireland will be more profound than for any of the other member states and that he is urging the other 27 countries in the European Union to give the country special dispensation to enter talks on a draft bilateral agreement with the UK.



The House of Lords EU committee said the complex issues that have now arisen that could impact on UK-Irish relations “are often overlooked on the British side of the Irish sea”. The committee said Brexit would have an impact on all aspects of life, but particularly on the substantial cross-border trade including co-production on meat and dairy, which has flourished in a single-market environment free of tariffs and customs.

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In the first report, the committee refers to the “turbo-charged” friendliness that emerged between the UK and Ireland following the Good Friday agreement, characterised by the Queen’s visit to Ireland in 2011 and the reciprocal visit by the president of Ireland to Britain.

“It would be irresponsible to say this [Brexit] would scupper the peace process and lead to a return to violence,” Lord Boswell told the Guardian. But, he added, “Northern Ireland must not be allowed to become collateral damage of Brexit”.

The committee has urged the EU to invite the UK to start work on a draft bilateral agreement with Ireland focusing on the major challenges faced by Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in the wake of Brexit.

Under EU treaties, Ireland cannot enter an agreement with the UK on its own on customs and tariffs. The House of Lords said it was unfair it would now have to persuade the other member states of its special status given that it has found itself in a post-Brexit vote world “through no fault of its own”. The House of Lords believes Ireland should not be used as a bargaining chip in withdrawal negotiations and believes a bilateral agreement could remove it from the potential toxicity of the final talks.

The 78-page report, Brexit: UK-Irish relations, took evidence from academics, lawyers, farming associations and politicians including the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, over several months. It touches lightly on the Good Friday agreement, but its main focus is the potential effect of Britain’s exit from the European union, including customs, tariffs and restrictions on the freedom of movement of the estimated 30,000 people who commute to work in schools, hospitals, offices and farms on both sides of the border.

It concluded that physical or online customs checks were not only undesirable but probably unviable because of the adverse affect on the economies north and south of the border.

The UK is Ireland’s number-one export destination, with as much as 50% of Irish beef, 60% of cheese and 90% of mushrooms ending up on British tables. Northern Ireland’s economy is also deeply intertwined with the Irish economy, with 38% of its exports, including 350,000 lambs a year, going south of the border.

The committee found Northern Ireland’s economy was already characterised by the “highest levels of deprivation, unemployment and poverty” and while Ireland might be well placed to respond to the economic challenges in its path, Northern Ireland was not. In the agri-food sector, £700m of the annual £1.15bn exports go to the republic.

Former Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the committee that “no one wished to return to a hard border” with 40,000 people on a security payroll.

While some have mooted the introduction of online customs controls as a way of keeping border traffic flowing, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, Mike Nesbitt, agreed that electronic monitoring of the movement of goods “just will not cut it”. The committee were also told a hard border could herald a return to the era of organised smuggling of fuel.

Alternative customs models explored by the committee included the Norway-Sweden system, in which Swedish customs officials are allowed to examine premises in Norway. Former taoiseach John Bruton said this was “unlikely to be acceptable in Ireland” given the history between Britain and Ireland.

“The border is the hinge on which all this hangs and if it were to change radically that would be a major setback,” Boswell told the Guardian.

His committee concluded that “the only way to maintain an open border would be either for the UK to remain in the customs union or for EU partners to agree to a bilateral UK-Irish agreement on trade and customs”.

Boswell said for this and many other reasons, it is imperative that “the unique circumstances” caused by the referendum in Ireland should be acknowledged by the EU member states.

The report comes two months after Irish leaders warned of the “incalculable consequences” of Brexit.

Boswell recognised that bilateral agreements on customs and tariffs were not permissible under EU treaties unless all partners agreed to them. “The unique nature of the UK-Irish relations necessitates a unique solution,” said the report, adding the UK government “needs to be aware of the risk of placing a disproportionate burden on the Irish authorities” to find Brexit solutions.

“This is an issue that has to be taken seriously in Great Britain and by the UK and its public opinion and also by the [European] commission, council and European institutions,” said Boswell.

“Number one, you need to realise this is a unique situation in order to do something about it; number two, you have to set up the machinery which is not subversive of the overall negotiations,” he added.

The rights of the Irish people in Britain and the British in Ireland is another issue. Britain could overnight assure Irish people living in Britain that their rights to reside and remain in Britain were protected, but Ireland would not be able to automatically reciprocate because that would constitute a bilateral agreement.

“Short of a world war situation this is the most testing time for the public administration,” said Boswell. “This isn’t just about the geopolitics and the high diplomacy, this is about people and how they live their lives.”

A UK government spokesman said: “The government is working to secure a deal that works for the whole of the United Kingdom. Ministers are acutely aware of the deep links between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. There is already a common travel area between the two countries, created many years before either was a member of the European Union.

“We are clear we do not want a return to the borders of the past, no unnecessary barriers to trade and no obstacles between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The government will consider this report carefully and respond fully in due course.”

• This article was amended on 10 January 2017 to remove an incorrect figure for the number of Irish people living in Britain.