James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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98. To ask the Minister for Finance the steps his Department and the Revenue Commissioners will seek to avoid disruption to Irish Sea movements under duty suspension between here and Great Britain post-Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11012/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s position remains clear - it wishes for the closest possible relationship between the EU and the UK, post Brexit. This is in line with the European Council Guidelines agreed on 23 March, which reaffirmed the EU’s desire to establish a close partnership with the UK in the future.  The Government and its EU partners agree that any future agreement must have the correct balance of rights and obligations, and that the integrity of the Single Market must be preserved. This is in Ireland’s interests as membership of the Single Market is a core element of our economic strategy. Nevertheless, it is still our view that any EU-UK future relationship agreement should be comprehensive and ambitious and as wide as possible in its scope.

The text of the Withdrawal Agreement will include the legal terms for the transitional arrangements, which are hugely important for Ireland in giving certainty to individuals and businesses. We welcome that the EU has proposed that the whole of the EU acquis will apply during the transition, which means that the status quo will be preserved with the aim of avoiding any gaps or disruption between the UK leaving the EU and when a future relationship agreement enters into force, we further welcome the UK’s agreement to an orderly transition and consider this as an important step for Irish business.

EU excise rules apply to the trade in alcohol, tobacco and mineral oil products.  Such excisable goods move at present across the EU under a controlled messaging and confirmation system that is shared by all EU member states, known as the EU excise movement and control system.  This system is in place to monitor and record the movement of excisable goods while duty is suspended, and to ensure that the correct amount of excise duty is paid when excise goods are released anywhere in the EU for consumption.

The future arrangements that will apply to cross border movements of excisable goods will depend on the outcome of discussion on the future relationship between the EU and the UK. In accordance with EU rules, it will technically be the case that if such an agreement does not provide for UK participation in the EU Excise Movement Control System, importers of excisable goods will still have the facility to import such goods from the UK with payment of excise duty suspended until the goods are released from the importer’s excise warehouse.