Mr. Niall Cody:

The 20 million to which I referred comprises imports and exports but the physical and document-checking always focuses on the inwards direction of trade. The import figure is approximately 11 million, with 9 million on the export side. There are also express carriers which carry out multiple small transactions, though I will not name any one of them. The process is dealt with by those companies.

The Deputy asked about the posts at a distance of 15 km from the Border.

In 2016 part of our team in the customs division started exploring what would be involved. That has been an iterative process. We all remember the draft report, which was preparatory work, that ended up as headline news. There was a lot of work done. We looked at different border processes, including those between Norway and Sweden and between Austria and Switzerland, and looked at various options. We have looked at what we can do and the reality, which I am sure Deputy Doherty will confirm, is that a trade facilitation station 15 km west of Bridgend would not be considered as other than a border post. We have moved away from that. We want to look at and explore the idea of trader premises, bonded warehouses, and customs warehouses, ideally the consignee's premises, and at building these into our risk-based approach to controls. One of the things the European Commission, the Union's customs code, and the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union is really interested in, and on which they have done some preparatory thinking, is how best to work an integrated tax and customs approach to the risks presented by customs. We are fortunate that we have an integrated tax and customs administration. That is not the case in all countries. In some countries the tax authority has to go through a legal framework to engage with the customs authorities whereas we have an integrated system and we look at importers on a-----