Brexit red tape and delays at ports 'to drive up prices for Irish consumers'      

Additional costs entailed in policing imports from Britain into the all-island EU single market will inevitably drive up prices

A lorry boards the P&O Ferry European Causeway at Larne Port.

Brexit "red tape" and delays at ports will drive up prices of Irish goods in the coming months, Bank of Ireland group chief economist, Loretta O'Sullivan has warned. 

Ms O'Sullivan said that the bank's business customers had signalled that the additional costs entailed in policing imports from Britain into the all-island EU single market, including many items from groceries to building materials for the Irish construction industry, will inevitably drive up prices.

Despite the Brexit deal struck on Christmas Eve that involves no new trade tariffs, she said doing business with Britain had become more complex and companies will take on extra costs involving more documentation for imported goods and navigating delays in deliveries.

Truckers have also said this week that delays at major Irish ports that deal with the bulk of deliveries from Britain, including at Rosslare, Dublin, and Larne, would push up prices for Irish households.      

Ms O'Sullivan said that the delays at ports and the so-called non-tariff barriers will drive up prices.  

It all means more friction and red tape. There are regulatory forms to fill in; there are customs checks; there are delays at ports, which are adding to costs, and we see that is going to be passed on.

Irish consumers would see the higher prices in retail and in a broad range of goods because so many so-called intermediary goods and raw materials are imported from the UK. 

The firms the Bank of Ireland survey represent a broad range of the Irish economy, she said.  

Her comments come as new official figures show prices fell across the Covid-19 stricken economy in 2020. 

The CSO figures also show that prices fell for many goods across large parts of the economy in December, even before the start this month of the full level 5 lockdown. 

Prices fell 1% in December from December 2019 across the 51,000 prices that make up the basket of goods and services in the CSO's consumer price index.

From the start of April, on an annual basis, prices fell each and every month last year, following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In December, prices fell on a year-earlier basis in clothing and footwear, transport, furnishings, household equipment, and household utility bills. 

Prices for health services, restaurants and hotels, and recreation, rose over the same period.

Other notable changes included a fall in private landlord rents, down by almost 3% in the year, reflecting the effect of the pandemic on incomes for many workers and students during the pandemic.    

However, the cost of mortgage interest charges rose 2% in December from December 2019, according to the CSO figures.   

Since, 2016, prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks, clothing and footwear, and communications have fallen sharply, while the prices of alcohol and tobacco have risen sharply. 

Also up sharply over the same period, were the prices of education services and the bills charged by restaurants and hotels.