Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I said earlier that I would look at the operation of this scheme in the context of next year's Finance Bill and as part of that we will engage with the sector. I only make that commitment in the context of the normal reviews that we would do of key schemes in advance of the budget. A change through this scheme was put in place in recognition of the challenges faced by the sector. I am being careful currently as many different needs are being advanced to me under the heading of "Brexit" or precautionary measures to be taken in advance of Brexit. I am being careful about what we do as all of this has consequences elsewhere.

I agree with Deputy Pearse Doherty as no scenario is likely beyond the British people making the decision to reverse Brexit that gets us to a place in which trade and contact with the UK would be identical to what it is today. That is because of the simple reason that the UK will become a third country. It is the choice it has made. We will work very hard to mitigate the effects of this and we hope we can get through the current phase - which we will - so we can play our part in seeing that agreement is reached between the European Union and the UK, respecting the importance of trade between both. There will be change and this will have consequences for different parts of our economic sectors. We will have a look at this scheme in advance of next year's Finance Bill and we will engage with the sector as part of that.

In responding to Deputy Pearse Doherty, it is fair to say that I am informed the price of diesel went as high as €1.50 in the early years of the scheme, although in subsequent years it has dipped. That has affected the drawing down. As we can see, changes in the price of diesel now should affect use of incentives available to the sector and I expect to see more drawing down through the scheme than we have seen recently.

The Deputy also asked about equalisation and I decided not to do it in this year's budget for many reasons. For one, I am conscious of the tremendous importance of diesel in how we fund access in and out of our country. With the nature of Brexit becoming clear in a few months, I decided to take this decision at a future point, when I will be clearer on where we stand on big matters of transit.

To be honest, if I was sitting before the committee having made a decision on equalisation or carbon taxation, it would have been fair to ask me why I was making those changes. As I did not make changes in carbon taxation or diesel equalisation, it is a fair enough position to advocate leaving the scheme unchanged.