Ms Celine O'Neill:

To clear up some confusion that can often arise in this regard, there are always two aspects to a customs procedure, namely the export formalities from the UK and then the entry formalities into the EU. When exporting from the UK, an export declaration is needed combined with safety and security information. It is possible for those two to be combined at export but it is not the same on import. That is the first thing that always has to happen on the UK side. For import into the EU, an import or transit declaration is always needed along with a safety and security declaration. That requirement is the same whether the goods are coming back into the EU in France or in Ireland. France has a system called SI Brexit which operates in a very similar way to our customs ro-ro system. It allows declarations to be paired together and matched with a specific vehicle that is carrying those goods. This is critical, particularly because a lot of groupage loads move backwards and forwards between the EU and the UK. It gives the customs and other authorities the best opportunity to know precisely what goods are arriving and when they are going to arrive.

The method for pairing the information when going into France is slightly different from the method when coming into Ireland in that barcodes are scanned at the ferry terminal or port terminal for the short sea straits. That is done by the ferry operator or the tunnel operator. It has the potential to slow down significantly the boarding of the ferries. What we have provided on our customs ro-ro service is an opportunity to do all that work before someone gets near to the ferry terminal, ensuring that the process of boarding the ferry is maintained as smoothly as possible. We are in regular contact with our French counterparts who have been reporting the same challenges that we are noticing. There are difficulties with the safety and security declaration - either no declarations are being made or the data is incorrect. Some customers are trying to use the incorrect declaration types to move their goods - they are trying to use paper declarations rather than electronic declarations, or are using different documents that are not readily understood. Some people are presenting the UK export declaration instead of the EU import declaration. Again, they are reporting challenges on SPS products. Despite what might have been heard, the challenges are the same in Ireland and in France, but they may be presenting themselves slightly differently.