Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. He will be aware that this is a tax and customs issue which brings into the responsibility of the Department of Finance as the parent Department involved.

Revenue has provided some general information that will help to explain the general situation as described by the Deputy. What he has outlined to the House certainly happened. There is no question about that. I will outline some of the background to the issue.

Revenue is Ireland's tax and customs administration and is responsible for managing the importation and exportation of goods in accordance with EU customs rules and relevant national legislation. Customs controls are necessary to protect public health and to ensure food safety and product standards, and to protect people from fraud or from unfair international competition, thus preserving jobs for European workers, including Irish workers. I am advised by Revenue that across the European Union, electronic customs importation declarations are now required for all parcels and packages coming from non-EU countries, including those coming through the postal system, regardless of the value of the goods being sent. This includes parcels and packages coming from the UK, which is no longer a part of the EU as a result of its decision to leave the Union. While goods valued at less than €150 may not be liable to a customs duty, since 1 July, all goods imported into the European Union, not just Ireland, regardless of their value, are liable to VAT. It is important to emphasise that those rules apply to all non-EU country exports by economic operators, by which I mean courier companies or An Post. This is happening right across the EU. A VAT declaration form must accompany such packages.

Recognising the volume of e-commerce low-value goods being imported, the EU developed an import declaration which contains significantly less information than the standard import declaration. However, this is not suitable for all e-commerce goods, particularly those that may be subject to a prohibition or restriction, for example, products such as foodstuffs, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. While a simplified declaration may be appropriate in certain instances which will be and is of help to importers, the types of goods I mentioned may require a full customs declaration. That means the relevant economic operator, whether the postal authority or a major transport company, requires a significant amount of data about goods in order to lodge the required documentation. This means that each of the operators must consider and examine their supply chain to ensure they are in possession of all the necessary information to complete this documentation.

I am advised by the Revenue that in the context of parcels and packages, while customs declarations are often submitted by the courier business or postal operator on behalf of the recipient in Ireland, the information required to complete the declaration is generally supplied by the exporting party although the importer, that is, the recipient or customer in Ireland, may also provide information to the postal operator that is needed to complete the transaction and declaration. This highlights the challenges for economic operators and the importance of each economic operator considering and examining their supply chain to ensure they are in possession of all necessary information. The reason parcels are being held up is because insufficient information was supplied on the customs declaration to start with and the quality of the information has been the reason for the delay. This regime came in on 1 July. I was pleased to hear the Deputy say the problems in recent weeks have not been as extensive as they were originally when the new regulations came in. The regulations apply across the EU, as I said. I look forward to hearing further from the Deputy.

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