Hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors who arrive in the Republic could be discouraged from travelling to Northern Ireland for part of their holiday unless changes are made to proposed United Kingdom immigration rules, British and Irish politicians have warned.
Under the UK’s Nationality and Borders Act 2022, tourists and others travelling from European Union states, with the exception of Ireland, and from other countries will have to obtain a so-called Electronic Travel Authorisation before arriving into any part of the UK.
Following protests from the Irish Government, the British government has exempted people who are lawfully resident in Ireland from having to apply for an ETA before travelling to Northern Ireland or Britain.
However, the changes have not far gone enough, the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly agreed at a meeting in Co Kildare on Tuesday, following its acceptance of a committee report drafted by Fine Gael Senator Emer Currie.
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Seventy per cent of tourists who visit Northern Ireland annually travel from the Republic having arrived at Dublin Airport, while just half of the one million tourists who come actually spend a night north of the Border, the assembly was told.
It heard the proposed £10 charge for the ETA, and the accompanying bureaucracy would deter some tourists, while others could land themselves in difficulty because they would be unaware of the need for an ETA to travel to the North until a problem arose.
The Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance’s call for a seven-day waiver for tourists travelling to the North from the Republic, or Britain, which would cover 93 per cent of the numbers who visit each year, was supported by the assembly.
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The ETA travel authorisation would be a particular burden on coach businesses and group tours, which were “a market particularly sensitive to both additional cost and additional administrative burdens”, the committee heard.
Equally, it is far from clear how the new travel authorisation system will work, if it is implemented, since the UK government has provided assurances that there will not be checks on the land border with Ireland.
“However, it is unclear whether travel companies will be liable if their passengers do not have an ETA. Likewise, it is unclear whether drivers would be insured in traffic incidents if they required an ETA and did not have one,” the Currie report says.
Speaking to the assembly, Ms Currie said the ETA “is currently unworkable”, and stood at odds with longstanding arrangements under the century-old Common Travel Area agreement and the principles that underpinned the Belfast Agreement.
Calling for a suspension of preparations for the ETA, she said measures to mitigate its effect should be brought in quickly by London, if it eventually decided that a full exemption for North/South traffic was not possible.
Noting the British government’s desire for an ETA was sparked by security concerns, the assembly accepted the recommendation that Dublin and London should “explore” whether those concerns could be met in other ways.
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Derbyshire Conservative MP Nigel Mill said the inquiry by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly committee had shown the complexities that surrounded the daily operation of the Common Travel Area, which had never been codified in legislation by either state.
Solutions needed to be found to deal with the issues raised for tourists travelling into Norther Ireland from the Republic, Mr Mills said. The ETA will be a minor hurdle for most since it will not “take very long [to apply for it], and doesn’t cost very much.
“If you know you’ve got to do it, it’s not going to make a material difference to a holiday,” he said, but it could cause problems for tourists travelling to the Republic who plan a day-trip to Northern Ireland to visit the Giant’s Causeway.
“They probably won’t realise they need different requirements to enter the UK and actually by the time they do realise they want to go to the Giant’s Causeway, it may be too late to apply for one of these things,” he said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are introducing an ETA scheme to enhance our ability to prevent the travel of those who present a threat to the UK. An exemption of this kind would undermine our efforts to strengthen the security of the UK border and keep people safe.
“Individuals arriving in the UK, including Northern Ireland, will need to continue to enter in line with the UK’s immigration framework, including obtaining an ETA if required.”
