Mr. Gerry Harrahill:

I will pick up on the points made by the Senator. In terms of technology and IT investment, close to 100% of the potential that is there in the way the customs system operates is based around IT. This is not just the situation in Ireland. Practically the entirety of customs movement across the EU is supported very directly by significant investment in IT. There is an ongoing programme of implementation of the modernised Union customs code and there is a significant programme of investment across all EU member states between now and 2025.

A very heavy part of that is investment in technology. There is an acceptance across the EU and at European Commission level that Ireland is at the forefront in that regard, just to give the committee the assurance that we are always looking at the opportunities to put IT supports and solutions in place. That is exactly what drove our approach to the investment surrounding the customs ro-ro service to try to automate as much of it as possible and, as I said, to try to avoid all goods arriving in Ireland having to be presented to customs, which was the situation before 1992. That is exactly what used to happen. Every item that came into the country had to be presented at customs. Thankfully, we are outside of that now and, as I said earlier, over 70% is currently getting green-routed.