Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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85. To ask the Minister for Finance the additional number of customs officers who have been hired by the Revenue Commissioners and in employment; the locations of these officers; the new posts based in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11191/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In September 2018, the Government granted approval in principle for the phased recruitment of an additional 600 Revenue staff to meet the challenges posed by Brexit.  Budget 2019 provided Revenue with the funding needed for 270 of the additional 600 staff to be recruited during 2019 to manage an orderly UK withdrawal.

Following the Government decision to give greater priority to the preparations for a No Deal Brexit in December 2018, Revenue has appointed over 250 additional staff to customs roles in the period 1 September 2018 to 28 February 2019.

The following table provides details of the 250 staff appointed during the period 1 September 2018 to 28 February 2019:

An additional 150 staff are to be appointed to customs and related roles by Revenue between now and 29 March 2019.  Revenue are on track to have appointed approximately 400 additional staff to customs and related roles for Brexit during the period September 2018 to 29 March 2019.

A total of 16 staff in Cork are dealing with local customs control work and customs audit. 13 of these staff are assigned to a recently created Customs hub while three are attached to Revenue’s Large Corporates Division.Revenue recently held internal competitions for trade facilitation posts at CO, EO and HEO level. These panels are now in place and include the potential to fill an additional 10 trade facilitation posts in Cork Airport and Port.

Resources will be deployed based on the evolving business needs and to tackle any risks as they emerge.

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, Revenue plans to appoint a further 200 staff during the rest of 2019. This would bring the total additional staff recruited to the 600 staff required to deal with the UK withdrawal from the EU.