Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Everybody on this side of the House is anxious to co-operate with the Government and provide as much assistance as possible to achieve the best possible outcome for the island of Ireland. This is not a party political football.

The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners raised a number of points which are presumably being worked on. I want to call them to the Taoiseach's attention. One such point is the study on the implications and the assessment of the options under the new Union customs code. Another is the key issues of the Article 50 task force conducted through the communications channels that his own Department runs - perhaps via the strategic communications unit. A further point concerns the development of customs IT infrastructure to ensure that it is going to be possible to deal with transactions in the future. The final point is the deployment of additional staff to prepare for Brexit and the scaling up of resources as necessary. It is common knowledge that Revenue is overwhelmed at the moment in terms of the task it has to do. It is probably some 300 to 500 staff short, particularly in the context of Brexit.

I would appreciate if the Taoiseach could update us on the points laid out by the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. In particular, on the key issue of the Article 50 task force, can the Taoiseach share with us who is on the task force, what it is doing and if there is an interim report from the task force? It is the responsibility of both the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We need communication on that issue. Revenue has a very clear idea on how to guard the national interest and the island interest, but the Taoiseach needs to share that with us.

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