����ý

The department store John Lewis has said it expects to restart deliveries to Northern Ireland "before the summer".

Deliveries stopped in December due to Brexit and the Irish Sea border.

In its annual report it said: "We have seen limited impact from Brexit so far operationally owing to our advance preparations and the Brexit trade deal.

"The one area of the business that is temporarily disrupted is deliveries to NI."

The Northern Ireland Brexit deal, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, means EU customs rules are applied to goods entering NI from Great Britain, including parcels.

However a grace period means there should have been no change for most parcel deliveries from 1 January.

But that grace period was announced just hours before the protocol took effect meaning some companies had already taken decisions about shipping to NI.

In some cases this meant temporary disruption or slower delivery while other firms ceased delivering.

It is understood that John Lewis is having to make substantial changes to its internal systems to keep serving NI.

Last week the government said the grace period for business-to-business deliveries will be extended until 1 October.

For all other deliveries, for example businesses to consumers, businesses will be given six months to prepare for new arrangements from the date those arrangements are announced.

These extensions happened without the agreement of EU.

The EU said this, and other unilateral measures, breach the protocol and it is planning legal action as a result.