Mr. Liam Irwin:

The volume of customs declarations. Many of those would be cross-Border in Ireland of a small value but big in number. We are looking at our IT systems and what we need to do to scale those to deal with that eventuality, which is to some extent a likelihood assuming the UK is outside the customs union.

We are looking at border arrangements in various external borders of the EU, particularly in the context of the Irish Border and how small local trade is facilitated. Apart from looking at that, we have not seen anything that we would attach to and say that is the way to go, but we are studying what arrangements are there and what opportunities there might be in the customs code.

Generally, whatever happens it is clear that a border with the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, would not be what we saw in 1993 just because customs have moved on and become electronic. We are looking at what types of arrangement might be there and to what extent they can facilitate trade. The initial thinking is more or less on trade facilitation and making sure trade moves north, south, east and west and using the landbridge across Ireland the UK. That is the work we are doing at present - scenario planning, scaling, looking at what particular arrangements we may be able to do - but any negotiation on that clearly will be with the European Union and the UK.