Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the call by my colleague, Senator Naughten, for a special debate on cyber-bullying. Many people are beginning to feel the effects of it and we are hearing many prominent people highlighting the impact cyber-bullying is having on them and on the population generally. It is unthinkable that two families have lost loved ones in recent times and that the company, Ask.fm, is considering relocating its business to Dublin. We need to consider the ethics of that and whether we want to welcome that company to our shores.

I very much applaud and congratulate the gardaí and the customs officers on the raid on the fuel laundering plant in Monaghan this morning. They seized three tankers, a mobile oil launders and 50,000 litres of laundered fuel. The plant had the capacity to launder 20 million litres per annum which equates to the loss of €10 million to our Exchequer. This plant had been operating for more than one year.

Organised criminal gangs are setting up front companies to source and launder fuel which is then sold in petrol stations throughout the country. It is estimated that there are 150 petrol stations in the North operating in this particular manner. It is an average of six illegal operations per county. These stations must be identified and named publicly. In the past, I have called for some type of Q mark to be issued to legitimate fuel operates in this country because in my county and in other counties, we have seen serious damage being done to vehicles. People have had to carry huge costs which they cannot recoup as insurance companies will not cover them.

I call on the Minister for Justice and Equality to redouble her efforts and make additional resources available to the customs officers and the gardaí to stamp out this practice and to join forces with her colleagues in the North to put an end once and for all to this scourge of fuel laundering which is costing the economy in the South a fortune and which is also causing huge financial hardship to many citizens as a result of damage to their vehicles.