Revenue has spent €126m on Brexit since 2017

Expenditure at Irish ports has increased following a six-month period at the end of 2021 which saw the volume of goods shipped directly to Ireland from the EU increase by 50%.

The Revenue Commissioners, the State’s collector of taxes, has spent some €126 million on Brexit-related preparatory measures and infrastructure since 2017.

The largest contributor to that figure stems from additional payroll costs, with €88 million being spent on additional staffing expenditure over the past five years. Some €39.5 million was spent on Brexit-related pay in 2021 alone.

The information, contained in a wide-ranging briefing note provided by the Revenue, shows that IT development accounted for just €4.9 million of the overall Brexit spend to date.

Infrastructure and accommodation however accounted for €29 million in expenditure, but only since 2019, immediately before Britain officially left the EU in January 2020. Just under €16 million was spent on Brexit infrastructure across 2021.

Uniforms, vehicles, radio communications, and sundry ‘other expenses’ contributed €4.2 million to the bill to date.

Direct to EU

Expenditure at Irish ports has increased following a six-month period at the end of 2021 which saw the volume of goods shipped directly to Ireland from the EU increase by 50% with hauliers seeking to avoid the red tape uncertainty of Brexit.

Much of the infrastructure spend was targeted at Ireland’s two largest ports at Dublin and Rosslare Europort, with Dublin Port by a distance the costliest of the two with €18.2 million spent on new facilities since 2019 in terms of long-term capital expenditure.

The Revenue is incurring rental payments at both ports also in terms of storage facilities, with just under €1 million spent on same at Dublin Port in 2021.

Facilities management at the two ports meanwhile cost over €3 million over the same 12-month period, the first year such a bill was run up. The Revenue said the amount relates to a “consignment contract” - an agreement for the storage, transfer and potential resale of goods - agreed across both ports.

Contraband seizures

Separately, the Revenue update details the levels of drug, cigarette and tobacco seizures in Ireland over the past three years.

In 2021 alone, drugs totalling a value of €115 million and a weight of 5,741 kilograms were seized across the country from 5,741 seizures, nearly three times the value seen in 2020 despite seizures themselves only increasing by just under 25%, and more than five times that seen in 2019.

Cigarettes and tobacco worth €68.6 million were seized in 2021 from 6,500 seizures.

Revenue said that its three mobile x-ray container scanners were responsible for the seizure of drugs valued at €83 million in 2021.

Meanwhile, the numbers of self-employed couriers using the ‘voluntary PAYE scheme’ decreased considerably across the decade up to 2018.

Such contributions are made by people who wish to keep their social insurance payments up to date and whose employer does not make them on their behalf. The courier industry has long faced accusations that its workers are bogus self-employed, that is people who work as de facto full-time employees but without the relevant social insurance benefits.

Just 117 couriers, employed with less than 10 companies, accessed the scheme in 2020, Revenue said.