Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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753. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of prepare your business for customs initial workshops that have taken place up to 31 August 2019; the approximate number of persons and businesses that have taken part; and the customs awareness and higher-level customs clearance training and advice for third country trading in place for SMEs by county in tabular form. [36844/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In relation to customs preparations, the “Prepare your business for customs” one-day interactive workshop is run regionally by the Local Enterprise Offices. These customs workshops educate business on the potential impacts, formalities and procedures firms need to adopt when trading with a country which is outside the Single Market and Customs Union (‘Third Country’). The workshops are open to businesses from all sectors. These workshops cover areas such as export and import procedures, tariffs and how to correctly classify goods in that regard.

The Local Enterprise Office customs awareness training has been ongoing since February of this year.  To date there have been 44 workshops, with 675 participants.  Furthermore, there are 27 further events currently planned. Details of LEO customs awareness training, the numbers participating at each event, and planned events to end of year are attached.  Businesses can book their place on the up coming workshops by contacting their Local Enterprise Office at www.localenterprise.ie/Brexit.

Enterprise Ireland also run an online Customs Insights course which helps businesses understand the key customs concepts, documentation and processes required to move goods from, to and through the UK. The course provides learners with a firm understanding of the customs implications for their business and the options from Revenue to make this process more efficient.  As of 30 August 2019, there were 1,565 participants on the Customs Insights Course.

In addition, my Department and the Department of Education and Skills, through a joint initiative by Skillnet and EI launched a new €5m customs recruitment and training initiative, Clear Customs. This initiative will boost the number of specialists by 500 in customs agents and businesses. The initiative offers a free customs training programme provided through Skillnet and a financial support payment from Enterprise Ireland to assist with the costs of recruiting and assigning staff to customs roles in addition to necessary Customs IT requirements.

The following table refers to the LEO customs workshops that have taken place up to the 31st August 2019.