Vol. 423 No. 8
91 Mr. D. Ahern asked the Minister for Finance if it is intended to put in place a redundancy package to cater for Customs and Excise staff who may no longer be required in border areas with the abolition of tax frontiers on 1 January 1993; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
In reports issued in November 1990 and February 1991 the Revenue Commissioners indicated that a potential surplus of approximately 600 Customs and Excise staff would arise as a consequence of the planned completion of the Single European Market on 1 January 1993 and in particular the elimination of the fiscal frontier controls between member states.
Since the issue of these reports the Commissioners have been working on proposals aimed at reducing the surplus staff figure. The Commissioners issued a revised report in July 1992 which showed a net potential surplus of approximately 60 staff. The reduction in the surplus figure has been possible because of Govenment decisions to give Revenue responsibility for the collection of EC Trade Statistics and the new VAT Information Exchange System post-1992 and for the administration of the new Motor Vehicle Registration Tax. This new work will provide substantial employment opportunities for Customs and Excise staff, the details of which were made available to staff last July. The revised report also identifies the Commissioners' staffing requirements for the expansion of some existing functions of the Customs and Excise service especially the strengthening of the common external border, increased control of drugs and other illicit traffic, improved Common Agricultural Policy control and post importation audit work.
Furthermore as I stated in my budget speech the Commissioners intend to redeploy surplus customs and Excise staff to other areas of Revenue work particularly work related to the continued drive for better collection and enforcement of taxes and detection of evasion and avoidance.
The reorganisation of the Customs and Excise structures and staffing levels to cater for the post-1992 environment is well under way. The Commissioners have made every effort to distribute the new and expanded work in a manner which will provide productive work for surplus staff at particular locations. In the assignment of staff priority has been given to staff already serving in the locations in which posts have been made available. A prime objective of this restructuring is to avoid domestic upheaval of staff if at all possible.
