The Irish Government of Ireland continues to rule out checks on the land border with Northern Ireland after Brexit, with An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar issuing a warning that officials there may become “a target”.

Speaking to Bloomberg in Davos, Switzerland, he also ruled out fully electronic checks: “I’ve yet to have anyone demonstrate to me a technology that can look into a truck and tell me whether there’s hormones in the beef or not,” he said.

Revenue is not planning for customs posts on the land border,” the tax agency’s chair Niall Cody added before the Oireachtas last week. Yet Northern Ireland would exit the EU after a no-deal Brexit and checks on agri food standards would then be expected to apply.

Carol Lynch of BDO customs and international trade also understands that “as far as the Government is concerned there are no preparations for a land border”, and added she was not currently able to advise her clients on exact procedures for north-south trade after Brexit.

Brexit border bottleneck warning

No clarity on land border

While Northern Ireland would exit the EU in a no-deal Brexit, there are no plans to check that agri food products entering the Republic would meet EU standards.