Ms Avine Mcnally:

I refer to the point raised by Deputy Collins on the statistics for the black economy being lower in other countries. The reason is that those countries have a more flexible social welfare system. Their taxation systems are very different from ours, but there is greater flexibility. It must be borne in mind that one is dealing with criminal minds when dealing with fuel smuggling. They have a lot of time on their hands to think of ways to get around the system. Revenue staff who have extensive experience in this area are of the opinion that the smugglers regard public announcements of successful campaigns against smuggling as an incentive to them to beat the system. That is not an excuse, but it is the reality. While no one has the golden ticket solution, it keeps happening because the smugglers keep thinking of ways to get around the system.