Northern Ireland's Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has instructed post-Brexit goods checks at the border to stop at midnight. 

Goods transported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland across the Irish Sea have been subject to border checks since the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol came into effect when the UK left the European Union.

It was the solution agreed to protect both the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland's internal market, as well as protect the EU's Single Market. The Republic of Ireland is a member of the EU and Single Market, and therefore Brexit created an EU "external border" on the island of Ireland. 

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Poots said he took legal advice which advised that the protocol was illegal as it was not voted for by the Northern Ireland Executive, the team of ministers which leads the power-sharing government in Belfast. 

"The advice concluded that I can direct the checks to cease in the absence of executive approval. I have now issued a formal instruction to halt all checks that were not in place on Dec. 31 2020 from midnight tonight," Poots said. 

Poots, who last year briefly led the DUP, Northern Ireland's largest party, said he would seek agreement on a future strategy from the Stormont executive "in the near future."

While the DUP wants to scrap the policy, the opposition party Sinn Fein does not. Sinn Fein is a Republican party which hopes Northern Ireland will one day vote to become part of a "reunited" Republic of Ireland. 

Sinn Fein's leader in Northern Ireland, and Deputy First Minister in the power sharing agreement, called the move an "unlawful stunt."

"This stunt is an attempt by the DUP to unlawfully interfere with domestic, and international law. DUP fixated on their own priorities, which are clearly at odds with where the wider community is at. Health, Jobs, Housing, Cost of living crisis is where the rest of us are focused," Michelle O'Neil said on Twitter.