Mr. Gerry Harrahill:

I will respond on those issues. First, it is important to refer to yesterday and the comment of Michel Barnier, when he was getting his award, that the consequences of Brexit are that the full application of all the rules and regulations that apply to a third country apply to trade with Great Britain. He was unequivocal about that in his response. That is worth having as the line in the sand as to what we can and cannot do.

The second element is that you and Senator Craughwell asked a question about the IT systems. I will explain briefly what we have done. In preparation for January, we had a comprehensive programme of testing drawn up, undertaken and completed not just of the Revenue Commissioners' systems but also the interaction between us, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the health and safety executive of the HSE. We built the substantial work, including capacity modelling that was undertaken across the transition period. It included items such as systems testing, traffic flow simulations and management, physical testing around our sites and, ultimately, the integration of all of those elements.

Full end-to-end testing of the customs systems before 1 January was not possible simply because the UK did not become a third country until 11 p.m. on 31 December. The opportunity to have a type of play time with the new system simply was not possible. That is why we put so much effort and focus on the trade and business engagement programmes, going through all facets of the customs formalities and trying to explain to business, including through practical examples, how those customs formalities apply and what they would mean for the different players and actors. Even today, if any of the members wish to go onto the Revenue Commissioners website, they will see a series of webinars that take them through the full spectrum. I believe there are 16 separate webinars available. There are journey maps that simply take people through some practical examples.