Mr. Eugene Drennan:

There did not have to be because there was free movement. There still is flexibility. We can still change ships but we must identify the ship by its registered number. If we change ships, and we do so all the time - if a driver comes into Holyhead and misses the 8 a.m. Stena, that driver then goes on the Irish Ferries - it happens very fluidly and quickly, but technically, the declaration is wrong. Even though they take an easy eye on this because they know it comes, at the same time, someone in somebody's office has to go back to redeclare the goods and correct the declaration. It just makes it cumbersome. If they had identified the carrier of goods as the truck trailer, the whole parcel would travel the whole journey whatever way easily. If the customs union has to be adjusted to take care of that, then it has to be adjusted.

Airfreight, for example, travels on a number. There is a master number for the total of the consignment and they do not care how it travels around the world, through airports, any which way, because when it arrives, once it is complete and in front of the authorities who want to charge a tariff or seize it, it is fine. However, here we have to declare everything for the big volume of goods that we move. Such an adjustment would be a big help.

While a lot of work is done through the agencies within their agency and within their remit, which I would like to acknowledge, they would want to step outside their boxes and see how it joins together. The connectivity of the jigsaw has not been there. There has not been an overarching body to see what it all does. We badly need an Irish system that speaks to the English system. They are on two different platforms, so it is necessary to redeclare. IT has become so sophisticated, if we create this electronic envelope, it should travel easily and not have to stop. We have to stop if we are called by the regulatory authorities, but other than that, it should try to keep the free flow. What I said about fish also applies to loads of beef or other agriculture commodities or any product. When we arrive in France, the PBN will be related to the regulatory authority of the country we come into, and they know we have come through - it is all intact and sealed - and drive on. It is free movement. Ireland has free movement of goods in the EU, and that should be the way. France has no discharge offices at the ports. We have to travel six to ten miles one way or the other to discharge a document that should be done electronically. That would let the goods flow.

The existing ferries, Stena and Irish Ferries, do a very good service to the Continent, but the timeline and the insistence on them keeping up to their schedule is crucial to Ireland and to the date and time on goods now, to make sure we get to market. If a person is not in Rungis at 5 a.m. and is supposed to be at a French meat market, the load will be sold off, discounted somewhere, and it will be of very little value.