Sir, – There has been a certain amount of comment and speculation, in your columns and elsewhere, in recent days on the UK government's Nationality and Borders Bill as it relates to Ireland and Northern Ireland ("Non-Irish EU citizens crossing Border face travel 'clearance' requirement after MPs' vote", News, March 22nd).
To restate a few facts:
Our commitment to the Belfast Agreement, the Common Travel Area and to ensuring there is no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland remains absolute.
The Bill provides for reconciling these commitments with the fact the UK has left the EU and that in future therefore all nationalities (except British and Irish citizens) will be required to obtain the relevant authorisation to travel to the UK.
We will make this process as straight forward as possible. Applicants will be able to apply on line for an Electronic Travel Authorisation, which will be low-cost, cover multiple trips over several years and be easily renewable.
As at present, we will not operate any checks whatsoever at the Ireland/Northern Ireland border, nor will we operate routine immigration controls within the Common Travel Area.
Like all other countries, we need to protect our external border, but we will do so in a way that fully respects the particular circumstances of the Ireland/Northern Ireland border, and in line with our Belfast Agreement and CTA commitments, as indeed we have done throughout the recent pandemic. – Yours, etc,
PAUL JOHNSTON,
British Ambassador
to Ireland,
Dublin 4.