Northern Ireland will be allowed to operate just 60 lorries in the Republic of Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, threatening disaster for businesses on both sides of the Irish border.

In a no-deal scenario, all commercial drivers in the UK would be reclassified as third-country operators requiring special permits to operate in the EU.

This spells chaos for the Dover-Calais route, which 11,000 trucks cross each day, and has special consequences in Ireland, where 13,000 cross-border journeys are made daily, transporting everything from bread to Guinness to cement.

The Department for Transport told the Freight Transport Association (FTA) this week that only 984 annual European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) permits would be issued for 2019.

It has warned hauliers that if the UK leaves the EU with no deal then they may need these permits to transport goods within the EU or EEA, but the Department for Infrastructure in Belfast has said just 60 permits will be issued in Northern Ireland.

ECMT permits are issued on a quota basis annually, with the deadline for 2019’s batch of permits set for 21 December.

“The delicate supply chain [the UK] economy relies upon will be in jeopardy,” said Sarah Louadi, the FTA’s European policy manager. As well as being worried about Dover-Calais, the FTA has also raised concerns about consequences on the island of Ireland.

Even though the British and Irish governments have pledged there will be no infrastructure on the border in a no-deal scenario, the FTA said no-deal requirements such as ECMT permits could choke off the supply of goods to manufacturers and farmers in Northern Ireland.

Seamus Leheny, its policy manager in Northern Ireland, said it would still be a problem despite the lack of checkpoints. “You can’t drive across the border without a permit because it would mean you are uninsured and unlicensed. This is a major legal issue,” he said. “If we just have 60 drivers who can operate it means a lot of factory processing will just grind to a halt.”

He pointed out that it was not just agriculture or food production that would be hit but also construction. The Quarry Products Association confirmed that 80% of the cement used in Northern Ireland came from the Republic.

Leheny said: “Getting a permit will be a lottery, and if having a permit becomes a unique selling point for hauliers it will be lights out for those that don’t get them.”

The FTA has been assured by the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland that there will be an exemption on the island of Ireland in a no-deal scenario.

But it said it understood that no such bilateral deal existed. Even if there was an exemption for the island of Ireland, it would mean drivers who went through the UK or Dublin and on to the continent would still be restricted.



The DfT said it did not “recognise” the figure and claimed there was no set number of permits for Northern Ireland out of the 1,000 for the UK as a whole.



