Following its sudden rejection by the Irish government, the techno-border is back. To an extent, it turns out to have been here all along, writes Newton Emerson. Proposals published last week by the British government are heavily dependent on technology to move goods across a “streamlined” post-Brexit Irish border.
Dublin had seemed open to this idea. Former taoiseach Enda Kenny indulged the concept and the Revenue Commissioners had revealed preliminary work on the project, for both soft and hard Brexits. In a worst-case scenario, Ireland’s top customs official said documents would need to be checked for between 6%-8% of cross-border freight but only a “tiny number” of lorries would be physically inspected, as everything else could be done electronically or via glorified toll booths.