Mr. Kevin McPartlan:

I really appreciate the Deputy's comments of solidarity with the front-line workers because those people have had a really tough time for the past two years during the Covid pandemic. They were showing up every day and then got this torrent of abuse. It was fuelled by some really - I will be charitable - mistaken commentary. I appreciate the Deputy's comments and I think our colleagues will too.

I will give the Deputy a couple of snapshots that might answer his point. Approximately half the forecourts operating in Ireland are what we describe as company-owned, company-operated, that is, they are owned by the large brand names, members of Fuels for Ireland that operate those sites. If I say they make up 57% of all forecourts, they tend to be the busiest sites, so by volume of fuel the percentage is probably higher. They probably sell 60% of the total fuel sold.

In response to the Deputy's question about market share, I had the good luck to watch the enterprise committee meeting this morning, at which the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, said that, according to its data, the four largest fuel companies control approximately 50% of the market.