Mr. Jerry Kiersey:

In 2005 and 2006, the then Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey, introduced MOTR 1 and MOTR 2, respectively. These were motor oil tax relief schemes which meant that a farmer could grow and produce rapeseed oil which hauliers could use to run their trucks. In the following years, we converted the majority of our trucks to run on rapeseed oil. In fact, astounding as it sounds, we were getting 90% of our fuel from Irish fields. Rapeseed was a very beneficial product for the farmer and for the land on which it was grown, bringing all types of environmental benefits such as a reduction in the need for fertiliser and an increase in the subsequent crop yield. Rapeseed is grown as a break crop, in the same way as potatoes or sugar beet, but its great advantage is that it increases the subsequent cereal yield by a minium of 10%.

We spent in the region of €300,000 converting all our lorries to run on rapeseed oil. The problem arose when as part of a subsequent Government, the Green Party pulled the plug on the relief scheme. Farmers were now obliged to levy excise duty on the product, which made it unattractive to us. As a consequence, the creators of the kits we had on our trucks went broke, as did the people who installed them. We eventually had to take them off because we were having technical problems and could no longer, in any case, secure a supply of oil. There is documented evidence that rapeseed oil has been produced in this country for more than 200 years, having been used in flax mills in Donegal and Derry. We ignore it to our cost because it is a wonderful product. I ask the committee to examine this issue.