Irish Exporters Association

Lobbying Organisation Irish Exporters Association

Date published 22 Dec, 2017

Relevant Matter Matters involving public funds

Public Policy Area Trade

Period 1 Sep, 2017 to 31 Dec, 2017

Specific Details Levying of 23% import VAT on imports from the UK in the event of Brexit

Intended results Raise awareness of this with Government and ask for a deferment of up to 2 years (as per our budget Submission)

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Simon McKeever

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Meeting (1)

We raised this at a meeting of DBEI Enterprise Forum on Brexit and Global Challenges 12/10: (that in the event of a hard Brexit, VAT on imports from the UK of 23% would need to be levied on imports from the UK at the point of entry). to draw attention to a potential Brexit-related implication to Irish businesses which either have UK supply chains, or are importers from the UK. We mentioned that we had called for a 2 year deferral period in our recent Budget 2018 submission. Currently the maximum deferral granted it to the 15 of the month (which could be current or next month). We also raised the implications to the exchequer of granting a deferral, but that deferrals of different periods had been granted in other EU countries and that the Cash-flow implications to affected Irish businesses could be significant and that Government would need to do something about this.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Frances Fitzgerald Tánaiste and Minister (Department of Justice and Equality)

Philip Kelly Assistant Secretary (Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation)

Dr Orlaigh Quinn Secretary General (Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation)