Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for making time available today to consider my request for a Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. As Deputies know, it has been an exceptional year, and there have been some significant and unforeseen factors that have impacted on the Revenue’s funding.The Supplementary Estimate for Vote 9 is to meet the 2020 shortfall associated with appropriations-in-aid, which is expenditure that the Department would normally receive, and Brexit-related expenditure required as part of our no-deal preparations. The total shortfall to be met is €7.819 million, which is less than half a per cent of the Estimate approved for the year. While €7 million is a significant figure, it is less than a half a per cent of the Revenue's normal operational budget.

To further explain the background, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on trade, resulting in a projected shortfall in appropriations-in-aid income of €7.1 million in 2020. This shortfall is primarily a consequence of Covid-19 restrictions and their impact on customs collection costs associated with appropriations-in-aid. During the course of the year, the Irish customs collected a substantial amount in fees processing customs documents for imports into both Ireland and the UK, where the company doing the importing was located in Ireland. As a result of the shortfall of trade in the retail sector, there has been a significant reduction in the lack of actual imports, with the knock-on effect of a reduction in fees that the Revenue Commissioners would have expected to collect but did not arise because of a reduction in trade. Although Revenue has seen significant underspend in its current funding, these savings are now required to meet overspends in office premises expenses due to Brexit infrastructure requirements.

Revenue’s 2020 budget has also been impacted by minor overspend in the category of motor vehicles and revenue instruments. This increased expenditure has arisen due to required maintenance work for multiple years in respect of Revenue’s three mobile scanners and the acquisition of personal protective equipment, PPE, for customs staff. The total amount required under that heading is €719,000.

I am satisfied that approval of the Supplementary Estimate of the Revenue will allow the Revenue Commissioners to deal with such requirements between now and the end of the year.