Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

52. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of Revenue Commissioners and customs officials that have been hired in order to deal with Brexit; the number operational; the number in training; and when they are expected to be operational. [23143/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am informed by Revenue that since the start of 2019, Revenue has appointed over 500 staff from open recruitment and interdepartmental competitions. The majority of these have been assigned to customs roles or to backfill positions from which existing Revenue staff have been assigned to customs duties.As serving staff take up their new Brexit-related roles, Revenue is back-filling the vacancies created, from panels established in its general recruitment activity. Additional staff recruited in preparation for Brexit are deployed across a number of functions with approximately half on import and export trade facilitation activities.

To date, Revenue has trained over 400 staff in preparation for Brexit. There are approximately 50 staff members currently training and it is expected that these will be deployed to active duties in Summer 2019. The impact of the decision to extend the deadline on Brexit to 31 October 2019 is being assessed by Revenue having regard to resources, infrastructure and trader engagement. This will include broadening the scope of training for new staff, to include customs and other compliance functions as appropriate, based on business need.