Technology can’t prevent hard border in Ireland if Brexit means customs controls, firms told

Technology can’t prevent hard border in Ireland if Brexit means customs controls, firms told BelfastTelegraph.co.uk The woman charged by Theresa May with planning how the UK’s borders will operate after Brexit has told businesses here that there is no magic technological solution for preventing a hard border in Ireland. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/uk-world/technology-cant-prevent-hard-border-in-ireland-if-brexit-means-customs-controls-firms-told-38021795.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/article38021794.ece/819e4/AUTOCROP/h342/2019-04-17_bus_49622140_I1.JPG Email The woman charged by Theresa May with planning how the UK’s borders will operate after Brexit has told businesses here that there is no magic technological solution for preventing a hard border in Ireland. Karen Wheeler, who heads the UK Border Delivery Group, addressed hundreds of businesses at a Brexit advice conference in Titanic Belfast yesterday. The senior HMRC official, whose role involves operational planning, said the political tension around the issue had resulted in the group not initiating detailed work on the Irish border until last July. “We came late to the party in Northern Ireland, not because Government wasn’t worrying about what was happening in Northern Ireland, but because the solutions were being handled and looked at in a political space rather than a technical, practical or operational space,” she explained. The civil servant also appeared to extinguish the notion propogated by some Brexiteers that the key to a frictionless border lay with technology. “There is no technology solution which would mean that you could do customs controls and processes and not have a hard border,” she told the audience. “There is no magic solution that would make that go away. If there was, trust me,… [Read full story]