Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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29. To ask the Minister for Finance if the systems put in place by the Revenue Commissioners to deal with Brexit and the potential for a no-deal Brexit have been tried and tested by external experts to ensure they are capable of dealing with the additional volume of paperwork and customs declarations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40515/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2017, I included provision for a €2 million investment in scaling up the Revenue customs IT framework. Revenue has upgraded the relevant IT systems and worked with the relevant software providers in supporting their preparedness for Brexit. Revenue IT staff working with staff from a number of reputable System Integration companies have undertaken extensive performance testing across multiple scenarios. The necessary assurance of the integrity of the systems has been verified and all performance testing criteria have been passed. I am assured by Revenue that it is confident that its systems are robust and have the capacity to cater for the volumes of trade that will be subject to customs formalities, post Brexit. Revenue has estimated that there will be an increase in customs declarations from current levels of approximately 1.6m per annum (representing import and export trade with non-EU countries) to over 20 million per annum post-Brexit.

Finally, the Deputy should note that Revenue’s IT systems operate to the highest standards and are certified to ISO27001 (Security), ISO22301 (Business Continuity) and ISO29119 (Software Testing) levels.