Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 29:

In page 34, after line 42, to insert the following:"40. Within one month of the passing of this Act the Minister for Finance shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the effect of fuel, tobacco and other types of smuggling on the economy and propose in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Assembly measures to tackle these crimes.".

Fuel smuggling, tobacco smuggling and other forms of smuggling are causing massive difficulties in this State and in the North. These activities provide incomes for criminals, destroy the environment and impose massive policing costs on the State. As I have said to the Minister of State previously, the only way to resolve this type of smuggling is to equalise the taxes and the excise on both sides of the Border. Sinn Féin is offering the Government an open door to the Executive in the North. We are in favour of the creation of an all-Ireland economy in which all of these things are equalised. That is the only solution which will effectively reduce these types of crimes. Obviously, the political will to seek that opportunity might not yet exist within the Government. As this is such a big issue, I am shocked that no other amendments have been proposed in this particular space by other politicians. We regularly hear on the airwaves about how seriously these issues are taken by certain people. Whole pages or sections of some of our Sunday newspapers are focused on these issues.

I ask the Government to ensure it means business in the resolution of these problems. In other words, it needs to measure the difficulties at hand. One cannot manage if one cannot measure. Rather than acting in an isolated manner, the Government should take real measures in conjunction with the Assembly in the North of Ireland to tackle these crimes. I know that some work is being done with the North of Ireland on this. This amendment proposes that a process involving stronger measures would kick in "within one month of the passing of this Act" to make sure we do not have to deal with this in the future.