Debate contribution: EU Customs Fee on Small Parcels
Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 13 January 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- EU Customs Fee on Small Parcels
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5316039
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The proposed additional charge that the motion references represents an unfair additional burden on customers who are already carrying the pressures of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis. However, the context is the imposition of Brexit, which is the definitive political folly of our times. Of course, the supporters of Brexit were repeatedly told that it would result in predictable and unpredictable adverse consequences, and the charges referenced in the motion are one such example. Brexit has created new customs and trade conditions for the North, which need to be managed. The Windsor framework has protected our businesses from much of the damage caused by Brexit, but it is not a panacea. The issue of duties on parcels is a friction that requires a practical and pragmatic solution. As I once again said in the Chamber yesterday evening, we must be solution-focused. A resolution to this issue requires engagement by all relevant stakeholders. Our businesses, customers and consumers do not want to hear spurious attempts to conflate issues of post-Brexit fallout with the rhetoric around the loss of sovereignty. Here is a wee reality check, folks: this is not a constitutional crisis. Our businesses, customers and consumers want us to lobby for the removal of that duty. They will want a solution. What is required here is pragmatism, not posturing. At all times, our focus should be on minimising the frictions created by Brexit and maximising the opportunities of our dual market access, not indulging in the politics of Project Fear.
249 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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