John Whelan: Relief for Irish manufacturers from U-turns on post-Brexit regulations

For any medical device manufacturer wanting to place new products on the UK market, the post-Brexit changes meant complying with two separate sets of regulatory and legal requirements, dealing with separate regulatory bodies

British manufacturers and their Irish counterparts have repeatedly criticised the UKCA mark as burdensome.

Irish manufacturers and distributors of furniture, agricultural machinery, and a wide range of other finished goods for the British market, were given fresh relief last week from the need to have all their products re-certified with a post Brexit UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) product safety mark.

This is a costly process, involving submission of certified data on all aspects of the product to designated UK bodies, and labelling approved products with the UKCA mark. The process was, until last week, essential if Irish or other EU businesses were to continue selling into the British market from January 1 next year onwards.