Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to take up the issue of Brexit and the Border. Deputy Breathnach is very much an expert on this, but I have my own connections to the area.

IFAC has no direct brief on Brexit but it seems, both to me and to many others with a knowledge of the Border, that the biggest problem will be smuggling, and we could face a 50 mile, or even 100 mile, zone on either side of the Border where there would be a potentially significant loss to the Irish Exchequer in VAT because of goods being moved without being recorded for tax purposes. In the North, there could be a comparative reaction. That is an enormous concern to traders and legitimate businesses all along the Border because other people will be going through. Has IFAC commissioned anyone to model what the likely hard Brexit impacts will be?

There is a role for trusted traders and so on. We all know there is already a lot of smuggling along the Border to the detriment of traders. Has Mr. Coffey had any conversations about this? The potential risk loss to the Revenue in respect of VAT and other directly levied taxes, whether on fuel or other elements of trade, could be extensive and very damaging to the Government's revenue capacity North and South.