Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will leave further exploration of this until we are talking to the Commission.

On the operation of the protocol in this jurisdiction, the Revenue has already admitted the IT systems it has in place have failed on numerous occasions. It says that 80% of vehicular traffic coming in is green-lighted, which means that one in five vehicles is stopped. That is a very significant volume. I acknowledge not all of that is within our remit, inasmuch as the preparedness of many of the British authorities and companies was not what it should have been. However, we have a real problem in regard to that level of stoppages in a situation, first, where there are already derogations from some elements of the protocol for a period and, second, where the volumes were down to 50% in January. There will be a chaotic build-up if 20% of vehicles are being stopped when it is at full volume. While it is not entirely within our remit, we need to have flexibility within Revenue if its systems are not working. I want to know what the Government wants to do about that.

Second, I listened to Revenue yesterday stating that, because Britain is now a third country, it is applying the standard checks for third countries, with something like 5% or 6% of vehicles being checked at random. It is not as if Britain had not got identical standards to us up to four weeks ago.

I am interested in the Minister of State's view on whether that volume of checks is immediately required, with the consequences of delays and frustrations, as we ease this in.