Customs arrangements for businesses importing goods from Britain are being temporarily eased as traders experience significant difficulties coping with post-Brexit border controls.
On Thursday night, the Revenue Commissioners issued a general code to allow traders and hauliers circumvent customs arrangements to allow them to move goods on ferries from Britain.
This will allow traders ship goods that they have struggled to move over recent days due to the new EU-UK border and customs checks that have delayed long-established supply chains.
The move is aimed at helping businesses that have been unable to ship goods from Britain since Brexit came into effect a week ago because they were unprepared for new customs and regulatory requirements on the shipment of British goods into Irish ports.
It comes after Stena Line, the largest ferry company operating on the Irish Sea, cancelled 12 sailings over the next five days due to low freight volumes and empty ferries arising from the failure of Irish businesses to move goods as a result of the new post-Brexit red tape.
Revenue said it was aware of the growing number of trucks in Great Britain that are waiting to move goods to Ireland and that trucks have been denied boarding onto ferries at the port of Holyhead.
It was implementing the additional measures around safety and security declarations that would help businesses meet their obligations and get goods moving.
In a sign of the severe difficulties facing Irish businesses from Brexit, the Revenue has issued the emergency code to cover an identification number that traders would ordinarily have to generate themselves by submitting entry summaries and customs declarations in advance.
In an email to businesses on Thursday night, the Revenue said that it recognised that some businesses were experiencing difficulties in lodging their safety and security entry summary declaration, or ENS, for moving goods on roll-on, roll-off lorries and other goods vehicles.
In response, Revenue is implementing a temporary easement to alleviate these current difficulties, said Ray Ryan, an official in the Brexit unit of Revenues customs division.