My Lords, Amendment 3 in my name also deals with Northern Ireland. It is a probing amendment, seeking an explanation from the Minister. Following an “international agreement”, Clause 3 allows the creation of regulations prohibiting an operator of a goods vehicle using it in specified circumstances. This creates obvious problems for the Irish border. If an international agreement were able to prohibit the travel of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, this could lead to a diminishing sense of the common identity that has developed in the years following the Good Friday agreement. It also presents a practical problem, as the avoidance of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic would not be possible. We all know that the Prime Minister has repeatedly said that she wishes to avoid a hard border, but you are going to have a problem delivering that if checks are needed on the border. Whether the operator can cross the border or not, it is the checks that are the issue.
The Bill suggests that there is a sensitivity about travel between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Our amendment simply strengthens that reference. We obviously do not want to imply that there should be checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK—quite the contrary. I therefore want to emphasise that the amendment is to investigate how this provision
would work and in what circumstances the Government anticipate that they might have to use it. It would obviously be a lot easier for everyone if we kept to the current arrangements.
4.30 pm
Last night, in the debate in the Chamber on the EU withdrawal Bill, the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, referred to the remnants of what used to be in place on the Irish/Northern Irish border, and to the fact that those facilities are not used any more. I am well aware from my visits to the island of Ireland that people travel across the border frequently and take doing so for granted. In many cases they do not notice which of the two they are in, any more than I do when I travel from Gwent to South Glamorgan in Wales. There is a proud notice to say immediately where you have arrived, but until you get to a shop or something and try to use some currency there are not many signs of difference. People do that on a daily basis and the trade has followed that lead from the people of the island of Ireland. It is therefore important that we get clarity from the Government on exactly how they anticipate that this would work, while maintaining the absence of a hard border.