Feargal Quinn (Independent)
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The witnesses are welcome. I found their submission very educational. I have met them previously and I know there is something to what they are saying.

The bad news is that I will not be supportive of their suggestion to tax the supermarkets higher to subsidise the smaller shops. That would be a tax on every housewife who shops in a supermarket, and that could not be the right thing to do. Increasing the costs to larger stores to subsidise smaller stores at a time when we are trying to contain costs is not a runner.

On the other hand, I am fully supportive of the steps they are taking about tobacco. I cannot understand the reason we have not moved in various ways. One of the witnesses mentioned that if a garda sees somebody whom he or she suspects has illegal cigarettes in his possession for sale, he or she cannot approach that person because that must be done by a customs officer. Will the witnesses explain that again because I am not sure I understood it? Do I understand that if there is a danger of them being imported it is a customs officer's duty rather than a garda's duty?

I am excited by the thought of this app, which I gather costs very little, and that it could be used by every garda and customs officer to identify people. Does it identify counterfeit as well as illegally imported goods?

I was surprised by the witnesses reference to the fact that it costs €3 million to put a scanner into the port but that it could pay for itself within a very short period. Will they touch on that again because if we have eight ports and only two scanners, it does not make sense when we can spend €3 million on a scanner that will pay for itself in terms of stopping these imports. If the importers of illegal tobacco know there are only two scanners, they can easily avoid ever being caught.

The fines for people caught with illegal tobacco are very small. Mr. Prendergast mentioned a Polish girl who had a €1 fine imposed whereas those of the witnesses in trade have to pay approximately €10,000 and close their shops for a week.

The steps the witnesses are taking are the right way to proceed. We should be well able to argue the case for the State to take the right steps in that direction.