Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important matter. My Department has been participating in whole-of-government preparations for Brexit since before the UK referendum in 2016 and, in line with the Government's overall approach, it has intensified work ahead of the end of the transition period on 31 December.

Without prejudging the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the EU and the UK, the central scenario underlying budget 2021 assumes the transition period ends without agreement. Budget 2021 provides €340 million for measures to prepare for Brexit through the continuation of existing measures and new supports for sectors and enterprises likely to be most affected. This comes on top of more than €700 million in budgets since 2017, and budget 2021 also provides for a recovery fund, in part to respond to the fallout from the ending of the transition period. I assure the Deputy that every effort has been put into getting ready for the approaching deadline. Since the morning of the referendum result in 2016, it has justifiably absorbed a significant amount of my time and that of the Department.

To give a little more detail, the Revenue Commissioners have now written to 90,000 businesses that traded in goods in the UK last year and phoned 14,000 of those businesses that were identified as having more than €50,000 in activity with the UK. In October, they hosted seminars with 2,000 businesses in that month alone, and very soon the Revenue Commissioners will launch a campaign focusing on the changes that are due on day one, 1 January 2021.

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