Dr. Pat Ivory:

With regard to Border communities, the protocol is a great benefit to them and enables the flow of people across the Border. Business can continue to be done, North and South. On the whole, the protocol is a major bonus for Border communities. However, there is sometimes a confusion between the conditions of the protocol and the conditions of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. That is presenting problems for business in the North as well as in the South in complying with all the conditions of the TCA. We are only beginning to understand those conditions fully, for example, conditions on rules of origin, and other issues on the services side such as mutual recognition of professional qualifications, which we have discussed. The protocol can be a big help, but businesses in the Border communities are still going to face customs procedures in trading product between the EU and the UK in the same way as businesses in the South will, so it is a challenge. One of the issues we have spoken about, the data adequacy, will have a particular significance for frontier workers and workers going back and forth across the Border. There is no doubt that it is a changed environment for everybody, so there are challenges for all communities and particularly for an SME in the Border counties, where business is already tough in many respects and there are many challenges.

Regarding the food importers and declarations and documents, that is an area where there have been teething problems for businesses across a range of sectors. The challenge for the authorities and the automated import system of the authorities is that the volume of declarations they have to deal with is huge. That has caused some glitches in the system and we have been working closely with the Revenue Commissioners to try to help resolve them. The Revenue Commissioners have been very good in issuing simplification notifications. There was also a statement yesterday that they recognised that the system has been going down under the volume of traffic and that this has to be addressed and agreed. We believe that is a good thing. We have close daily and weekly contact with the Revenue Commissioners and the agencies in trying to address people's issues and problems, and the response has been very good. When we contact the authorities there has been a willingness to try to solve individual issues. Sometimes companies can feel that the documents are being delayed for bureaucratic reasons.

It can also transpire that it is important that all of the information provided on these online customs declarations is absolutely correct. Even small errors can result in delays. It is a matter of businesses and the authorities working together to iron out these particular issues.