Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 149:

In page 130, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following:“Report on increasing floor of diesel rebate scheme

40. The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report of increasing the floor at which the diesel rebate scheme becomes available for Hauliers.”.

This amendment concerns the diesel rebate scheme. There is an error in my amendment, of which the Minister's officials have been advised. It should read "decreasing the floor", rather than "increasing the floor". It is a substantial error, but I know that the Minister is aware of the objective. There was an expectation that there would be moves to bring diesel and petrol into line in the budget, but that did not happen.

There is also concern about the operation of the diesel rebate scheme, particularly in the context of Brexit and the resultant longer journeys. There is still a lot of uncertainty. Hopefully we will get a deal that will mitigate many of these concerns. The industry has been arguing before Oireachtas committees in favour of amending this scheme. Its spokespersons argue that the floor, which is currently set at €1 before value added tax, VAT, should be reduced to 85 cent. They also argue that the rebate rate should be increased from 7.5% to 15%. I do not agree that the rate should be at that level, but there is merit in reducing the floor from €1 to 85 cent. Through the Department of Finance we costed this at €5 million, which is a significant cost but not a huge one in the context of the budget. The question is whether the industry needs support. Moreover, is this an industry facing serious challenges, particularly in light of Brexit? When we look at international comparisons, is the rebate scheme supportive of an industry comparable with other areas? Is fuel tourism still taking place? The answer to some of those questions is "Yes". There are serious challenges and concerns.

The environment is another issue we have to weigh up. We know we need to move people to more energy-efficient fuels. Is that possible at this point for the haulage sector? The information provided to me suggests that this is not the case. Other types of fuel would increase the weight load and payload and therefore require hauliers to carry lighter loads in their trucks. That would require them to make more journeys. Instead of taking one trip from Donegal to Dublin, they would have to do two because they would not be able to carry as much bulk as a result of having to move to other fuels. We have not come up with a real alternative at this point. There have been very positive moves on Euro 6 engines, which are much cleaner than older engines.

There is a genuine reason to consider this issue. The Minister should be open to changing the floor because for some years now there has been no real benefit to the industry because of the price of diesel. The benefit is now 1.8 cent or 1.9 cent per litre. Due to the price of diesel previously, there was a negligible benefit and in some years there was no benefit whatever. The best way of doing this would not be to increase the rate but to change the floor, which would allow more people to avail of the scheme at the same rates. It would come at a cost to the Exchequer. I put this forward as a Brexit mitigation proposal regardless of whether there is a hard or soft border. In the best-case scenario there will be an impact on the haulage industry. That is without question. This is one way we can support it. It is not a huge amount of money, but I am not minimising the amount involved either. It would be a positive signal on this issue.

I would prefer if this were in the budget. We argued for this in our alternative budget. I am looking for an indication from the Minister that he will consider this issue in the context of Brexit and the challenges this industry will face.