Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 140: To ask the Taoiseach his views on the UK Government proposal to introduce a [i]de minimis[/i] threshold for Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3330/91 on the reporting of intra-community trade statistics; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40490/08]

Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The position is that Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3330/91 was repealed and replaced in 2004 by the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 638/2004.

Article 10 of the replacement regulation provides for simplification within the Intrastat system — Article 10(1) requires Member States to define each year thresholds expressed in annual values of intra-Community trade below which a business is exempt from providing any Intrastat information.

Article 10(3) requires Member States to ensure when setting the exemption threshold that at least 97% of their total trade with other Member States (expressed in value) is captured by the Intrastat system.

Consistent with this legislation, in Ireland all traders (identified by VAT number) whose annual imports exceed €191,000 and/or annual exports exceed €635,000 are obliged to file intrastat information.

The number of traders required to make a detailed monthly report is approximately 7,400 for imports and 2,100 for exports (with overlap) and the total number of traders is 33,000 approximately.