Irish premier says ‘of course’ police will not be sent to Northern Ireland border

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The Irish premier has said “of course” police will not be sent to the Northern Irish border amidst diplomatic tensions between Dublin and London this week.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Commons on Wednesday he wanted “urgent clarification” after the Irish justice minister Helen McEntee said her department was planning to make 100 additional police officers available for “frontline enforcement work”.

It follows frustrations from ministers in Ireland who claim there has been a surge in asylum seekers arriving in Dublin from the UK, via Northern Ireland, due to the Rwanda Bill, which was passed by parliament last week.

Some fear a deployment of officers to the border could impact the common travel area, which allows the free passage of people between the two countries, with Mr Sunak urging the Irish Government not to send police.

In the Commons, he said: “It’s no surprise that our robust approach to illegal migration is providing a deterrent but the answer is not sending police to villages in Donegal. It’s to work with us in partnership to strengthen our external borders all around the common travel area that we share.”

In response, Irish premier Simon Harris reiterated that no gardai (Irish police) would be sent to border areas, saying: “Of course there won’t be.” Noting Thursday’s elections in the UK, he expressed a desire to not become “involved in the day-to-day back and forth in the House of Commons”.

Northern Ireland Secretary Christ Heaton-Harris and Irish deputy premier (Tanaiste) Micheal Martin also had a meeting on the subject on Wednesday, with the Northern Ireland Office issuing a statement after, saying there would be no deployment of officers to the border.

Mr Harris said: “We’ll uphold the agreement we have with Britain under the common travel area, the standard operating procedure that we have in place.

“I also welcome the comments of the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, where he referred to the importance of the two countries working together to protect the common travel area from abuses.”

Another focal point of the diplomatic row centred on Dublin passing emergency legislation to deem the UK as a “safe country” for the return of asylum seekers.

Both governments have acknowledged the existence of an “operational agreement” which provides for the reciprocal return of asylum seekers between the UK and Ireland, but Downing Street has said it contains no legal obligations to accept them.

Mr Sunak also said he was “not interested” in a returns deal if the European Union did not allow the UK to send back asylum seekers who had crossed the English Channel from France.

The prime minster was replying to a question from DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who accused the Irish Government of “hypocrisy” given its stance on the border during Brexit negotiations.

The UK Government has claimed the reported increase in asylum seekers entering Ireland from Northern Ireland demonstrated that its Rwanda scheme was already acting as a deterrent.

It is not clear how many asylum seekers have crossed from Northern Ireland into the Republic, with Downing Street saying it did not have that data as the border is not policed.