Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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It is similar regarding the issue of coal. Again, what we are trying to achieve with carbon taxes, and not everyone supports them but their aims are well intentioned in my view, causes the price of coal to go up. We can see it being advertised clearly that pallets of coal are being brought in and sold in the South extremely easily. Carbon taxes have not been paid on this coal and the revenues have not been surrendered, so it is impossible for local SME suppliers to match the prices. Again, the knock-on impact is a loss of jobs, which is not what we are trying to achieve. There is a similar kind of campaign, but in some cases it is becoming normalised to undertake this activity. We need to push back on this situation. Revenue does great work in many areas, but a strong message must also be sent out that this type of undertaking is, in effect, the same as smuggling. People do not see it in this way, and this is where we need to strengthen the messaging, if we can.

On the work undertaken at Rosslare Europort, I recognise the need for it to be undertaken and I compliment Revenue and all the other agencies on their response to Brexit. At a difficult time, these agencies made it as easy as they possibly could coming into that January, when there was a great fear of what would happen in our ports concerning goods coming in and going out. Overall, it is quite a good story. I understand the need for this investment. I just want to ensure we are on track to have the work completed before the end of the year. I ask this because my understanding is that the funds have to be drawn down and spent in 2023 to qualify for Brexit Adjustment Reserve funding.

Turning to the appeals board, I am glad the issue has been sorted out and it is going to be back up and running. Some of these problems seem to drag on a little longer than they should. The most important point, however, is that we cannot get to the stage fast enough where we have this needs-based scheme the Minister talked about. I know he is playing his part in trying to make this happen, but most people looking in probably do not understand why it takes so long. What we really need is a change to this scheme that will accommodate some common sense. I refer to a situation where a consultant or the appeals board can see an option to take an understanding approach. While not every box might have been ticked, a common-sense approach based on needs would allow for the person concerned to get through that appeal. This does not seem that complicated, yet it seems very hard to get it to this stage. The sooner it happens, the better. I understand this involves not just one Department, and this is where the difficulty probably lies, but we need to get this in place as quickly as we possibly can.