Mr. Eoin Gavin:

Many hauliers might not be used to working with IT systems. Some hauliers rely on their agents or their accountants to do this work for them. The registration process is a little different from that used under the PAYE and VAT systems. I refer to the allocation of fuel cards, for example. The fuel reporting legislation, which was designed to combat the use of the laundered fuel when more than 2,000 litres are in question, created havoc. It required oil distributors to report anything over 2,000 litres, with no reporting of anything under that level. We are going through the difficulties to iron them out. Overall, the new fuel rebate system is welcome. The ironic thing is that if any of us were to register north of the Border tomorrow morning, we would still claim that rebate and still avail of the corporation tax rate, but this country would lose the benefits it gets from our trucks leaving this economy. We would be soaking out.

The IMOD has launched a proposal aimed at making Ireland a shipping transport hub. It has spoken to people in the association about making Ireland a friendly place to do transport and shipping business. This proposal is similar to the IFSC and aircraft leasing proposals that were made some years ago. If this country's road tax structure and the charges between Ireland and the UK were to be sorted, we would be in a very good place. I mentioned to the Minister at our conference in Kilkenny last weekend that this is a very good place to do business because the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is very efficient, our corporation tax structure is very good, the fuel rebate system has been improved and upskilled and there are well-educated drivers and other people involved in the industry. It would be a pity to lose all of this in nine months by failing to make some little changes.