Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. After the past six weeks and the struggles businesses across the country have faced, it is ironic to go from being locked down to now discussing what they would view as the next potential crisis coming down the tracks. It has been an extraordinary year for businesses of all types. I wish the Minister and the Department well. It is welcome to see that there is confidence and support from all sides of the House for this Bill.

I will focus on business in the time I have to speak. As he said in his contribution, the Government has launched its Brexit readiness action plan, which sets out the actions the Government will take and that businesses and citizens must take to address the changes arising at the end of the transition period. One of the biggest is probably that the UK will be outside the Single Market and the customs union. That means there will be new controls and procedures to be applied to goods moving to and from the UK that were not in place previously. Revenue has estimated that the import and export declarations could increase from 1.7 million a year to 20 million a year next year.

The Minister has been working hard on informing businesses. He has written to 225,000 businesses registered in Ireland. Separately, Revenue has done the same. The Houses agreed many financial and upskilling packages of approximately €340 million available for businesses that were announced in budget 2021. The July stimulus measure included a ready for customs package of €20 million.

Businesses have been preparing for Brexit for the past two years because of the guidance the Government has been giving and the roadshow on getting Ireland Brexit ready. The Minister came to Clonmel to speak to businesses about what they need to do to get Brexit ready but that works both ways. Businesses have to be prepared also. However, the Minister might be aware of something that happened about two weeks ago, which I will be discussing with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. Revenue sent out a letter to many businesses about changes and arrangements that will be made for imports and exports of duty suspended from 1 January 2021. It stated that all movement of excisable products to and from the UK will be treated as a third country consignment. The new changes will be that traders will also be authorised as registered so that they can have internal movement of excisable products under duty suspension on arrival in the port to a tax warehouse. My inquiries revealed that they will have to submit trader notifications to Revenue via the Revenue online service, ROS, of duty suspended imports and exports. There will be a discontinuing of the current form, the SME 1/01/21 arrangement, and a streamlined process to facilitate trade flows and prevent blockages at ports and airports.

Businesses have been preparing for the past two years to be ready for Brexit but this letter was thrown at them, so to speak. Many have said they were shocked by this requirement and requested that the Minister for Finance look into it, and perhaps the Minister, Deputy Coveney, in terms of the requirements being made for businesses come 1 January 2021. I am aware some of them are being looked at and possibly changed. We are trying to get businesses to do everything right. I have been talking to a number in Clonmel, and from the very start they set up Brexit teams in their own businesses and departments. They meet daily and monthly to discuss all the changes that happen. The Minister is aware of that from speaking to Bulmers, in Clonmel, a number of months ago, which is very concerned about changes in excise duty for its business. Real challenges are facing a number of businesses and the easier we can make it for them the better, including Revenue being clearer on what it expects in terms of the changes that will come in January 2021 and not shocking them with six weeks to go. My colleague in Clonmel, Councillor Michael Murphy, has been working very hard at a local level but the European Committee of the Regions should try to emphasise the challenges businesses in Tipperary are facing.

I wish the Minister well for the next number of weeks. It is a daunting process but he has the full support of the Members of this House in that regard.