Mr. Dermott Jewell:

The fund I have proposed would be very similar to the fund that provides for the activity of the Financial Services Ombudsman, for example. The costs of the fund would be met by the provider. That means it would be paid for by one or more of the distributors, the garage owners and the station owners. They would contribute to a fund on an annual basis on the basis of their turnover. This money would probably be collected by Revenue. This kind of approach has been proven to work and operate in a number of areas.

The position of the consumer with regard to the small claims procedure is always that he or she has a contract with the person to whom he or she paid the money. Any time a consumer takes a claim in the small claims procedure, it is taken against the individual to whom he or she paid the money. In this case, it would be the owner of the petrol station where he or she purchased the fuel, as long as he or she has proof of this. That is why I said that a number of test cases could comfortably facilitate some learning in how this might work. A consumer who takes such a case might have to take a reduced hit. As I said, we have not heard anecdotally about anyone whose loss was as low as €2,000.