Ms Hazel Sheridan:

I thank Senator Lombard for his question. We are aware of the issues in respect of machinery parts. We and our colleagues in Revenue met the freight forwarder association last week on this and other issues. The problems are being caused by a particular reliance in Ireland on groupage. A groupage container can have a large number of different consignments requiring a large volume of documentation to be submitted. Businesses are now contending with that challenge.

It is primarily on the Revenue side of the operation. There is a Revenue solution of which business operators can avail. I am not completely au faitwith that because it is quite a complicated arrangement but the information was passed on to those involved and Revenue is encouraging businesses to engage with the process. That solution is available. It is difficult, and the Minister made that point already. We are working closely with businesses to resolve the issues that only came to light once the UK was outside the Single Market.