Mr. Niall Cody:

The most straightforward answer is that the UK will be a third country, and in that regard it will be no different from any other non-member of the EU in the Single Market. From a customs perspective, all of the rules that apply to the import of goods from outside the community will apply to the UK. There are specific provisions around different issues such as land borders, which we have touched on. We have been in the situation of not having an external land border, from a customs union point of view, since we joined the EU. However, joining the Single Market was the event that allowed us to remove the border controls I discussed with Deputy Pearse Doherty from 1 January 1993. Certain things flow from a customs perspective, and other things flow from an excise perspective. I imagine that all of us in the room are fascinated by much of the ongoing commentary, and I am regularly surprised to hear certain Members of Parliament in the UK talking about the different VAT regimes and different excise regimes, and suggesting things could work along those lines. There is a suggestion that they could work differently between Ireland and Northern Ireland because VAT and excise is different. I always wonder why the follow-up question from the interviewer is never to suggest that it works because the UK and Ireland are both in the Single Market. The Single Market provides the framework for the VAT process and the excise process. There is a VAT information exchange system in place in the EU, which is an IT system used by the 28 member states that no other country uses.

That is what allows the movement of goods.

There are complex VAT directives. My colleagues are probably starting to smile because I was involved in the run-up to the Single Market at a much more junior level in the area of the VAT directives. The excise movement control system is an IT-based system that facilitates the movement of excisable products across frontiers throughout the community. If the UK left the Single Market immediately with no deal, it would no longer be part of the Single Market VAT rules or the excise rules. If someone is not part of the VAT or the excise rules they go into the customs rules. One is either subject to the customs rules or the EU VAT and excise rules.