Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 62: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of officials engaged in customs and excise duties, since the amalgamation within the revenue and since the amalgamation for all years up to the end of 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16986/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that since the completion of their programme of integration of grading streams, in most instances, staff are no longer assigned exclusively to Customs and Excise duties. Therefore, figures are not maintained in a manner which would enable the question to be answered comprehensively.

By way of information, the Deputy may wish to know that some 150 staff in Customs Division and part of Indirect Taxes Division are responsible for the policy, interpretation and international aspects of Customs and Excise, excluding Vehicle Registration Tax.

There are over 5,400 staff in operational divisions engaged in day-to-day work including customer service, audit and compliance across all tax and duty heads. Included in this are staff involved, for example, in excise controls, frontier management, trade facilitation, customs valuation, excise and customs investigations and prosecutions etc. The work of central divisions including legal, HR and operational and strategic policies encompasses Customs and Excise matters as required.

Also included in this figure are some 240 dedicated enforcement posts. The work of these posts, some of which are located at ports and airports, includes the detection and investigation of suspected tax, excise and customs offences, operations aimed at tackling fraud and combating the Shadow Economy.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 63: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of additional customs and excise officials recruited since the date of introduction of vehicle registration tax up until the end of 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16987/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that all work relating to the management of vehicle registration tax has been carried out within the overall staffing limits agreed with the Department of Finance and no additional numbers have been recruited specifically for dealing with vehicle registration tax.