The Government has paid €1.6 million for a site near Rosslare EuroPort where State inspectors will carry out checks on UK imports in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The purchase price paid by the Office of Public Works (OPW) for the 16-acre site about two kilometres from the southeastern port is revealed in a record released by the State agency under the Freedom of Information Act.

An invoice, released to The Irish Times, by the OPW shows that the State bought the former Renault car import centre from Wexford haulage company Baku GLS in March, just weeks before the UK was originally scheduled to leave the EU at the end of that month.

The €1.6 million cost of the site is part of an overall bill of €7.8 million spent by the State buying land and developing properties at Dublin port, Dublin airport and Rosslare port for post-Brexit border checks.

The State plans to carry out customs, food and animal health checks on goods moving through Rosslare port on lorries and other heavy goods vehicles arriving from Britain in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal on the next Brexit deadline of October 31st.

More on the story can be read here.