Dinny McGinley
Question:76 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Finance if he has any plans for the employment of surplus Customs and Excise personnel in County Donegal from 1 January, 1993.
Written Answers. - Customs and Excise Personnel.
The completion of the Single European Market on 1 January 1993 will create a large surplus staff situation in the Customs and Excise Service. The Revenue Commissioners have acknowledged that the Donegal area along with a number of other areas such as Dundalk and Wexford will be particularly badly affected.
I recently announced that the Government has decided to assign to Revenue two important areas of new work arising from the Single Market and that these would be administered from two new decentralised revenue offices in Dundalk and Wexford. The first area of new work relates to the collection of EC trade statistics post-1992 and the new VAT information system. This work will be administered from Dundalk. The second area of new work relates to motor vehicle registration tax and this will be administered from Rosslare initially pending the building of new decentralised Government offices in Wexford.
The new areas of work as well as providing administrative type jobs in Dundalk and Wexford will also support the equivalent of about 130 jobs throughout the country on work related to compliance and enforcement. The Donegal area will received a proportion of these jobs. The following options to address the Customs and Excise surplus staff situation are also being actively pursued; negotiation with relevant unions to absorb surplus staff in other areas of Revenue and to involve the Customs and Excise service in the continued drive for better collection and enforcement of taxes an detection of evasion and avoidance; opening of redeployment opportunities in other Departments such as Agriculture, Marine and Justice; allowing Customs and Excise staff into the decentralisation programme.
It is hoped that these options will also help to reduce the surplus staff situation in Donegal. However, the Revenue Commissioners recognise that the scope for redeployment in the context of the measures outlined would not be capable on their own of solving the surplus staff situation in Donegal. The Commissioners are actively seeking solutions to this problem with the aim of ensuring that, to the greatest extent possible, a career can be provided for all Donegal based Customs and Excise staff in, or close to, their present locations.