John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I raised this issue with the Minister for Finance some months ago. This is a simple matter. Millions of euro are being lost to the State through the illegal laundering of fuel and diesel. This has been caused by the great rise in oil, petrol and diesel prices and it has been an attraction for criminality which has been taken up with gusto. There is a disparity of 51 cent between off-road and on-road diesel at the moment. The difficulty has been exacerbated since the beginning of the year with the change in the sulphur content in diesel. The perception up to now was that this was only a problem in Border areas. However, this illegal product seems to be mushrooming all over the place and has been detected in Cork, Waterford, Limerick and many other counties, including in the west.

The Irish Petrol Retail Association has raised this issue and it maintains that it is costing jobs. The association reckons there are 120 questionable filling stations selling diesel, amounting to 12% of the overall diesel market. I congratulate the Revenue and Customs and Excise on last week's find in Castleblayney but it epitomised the difficulty and has shown the people that the law of the jungle applies in respect of this issue. Not only was the find massive, but those involved ganged up on the Customs and Excise officers as they moved away with the dismantled plant. They have no respect for the environment. Whatever needs to be done should be done and whatever resources are necessary must be put at the disposal of the Customs and Excise or the law. The ordinary people and retailers are keen for this to be sorted out. Whatever needs to be done should be done now.

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