Mr. Eamon Daly:

My first concern relates to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the environment and the understanding of the market in Ireland. It is not just about Northern Ireland. There are European companies like Inter Sprint and Van Den Ban that come here every week with trucks to sell tyres. There is also the UK and the North to consider. We also have foreign online sellers and if somebody brings in four tyres, under the current regulation, he or she can take away four tyres as waste. I can stand corrected on that but it is my understanding. If there is a levy on truck and agri tyres, there is no need to track those tyres as farmers and hauliers are not going to pay that charge. The 2,500 retailers are currently producers. We are not talking about the number of members that Repak has as retail members and we really need to talk about producers. These are the people who are supposed to pay this charge.

It is very interesting to hear about the formalisation of an existing charge as we can produce copies of invoices to show what was paid previously. This is not even a first cousin to what was the previous charge. There is distortion in the market, as pointed out by William Fry. With regard to dealers in Northern Ireland or outside the State, this regulation is national and will not apply to those people. They will be outside of enforcement and any regulation or audit process. My concerns are simple. If there is evasion, which is a major concern, there will be VAT issue compounded on that. There is no question that this will increase fly tipping and there is already distortion there. There is no competition. The result is simple and it will be job losses. That is where my concern lies.