Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

As spokesperson on transport, I am deeply concerned by this measure. On entering Government, the Taoiseach stated he would do things differently and there would be a new way of doing business. However, the old reliables are being hit again. When this measure is taken into consideration with the increase of VAT on fuel, its impact will be to make the transport sector significantly less competitive than its counterpart in Northern Ireland. While Ireland's exports have been doing well, the Taoiseach will recognise the requirements placed on Irish exporters to gain access to the markets of Europe are greater because of the cost associated with transportation. This transportation will now cost more because of the increase in VAT on fuel, as well as the increase in tax on vehicles.

The Irish Road Haulage Association put forward a good proposal for a rebate scheme. Its adoption would have demonstrated the Government's capacity to move on an imaginative proposal to deal with the issue of marked diesel, the impact on revenue lost to the State as a result of the cleansing of such diesel and its unscrupulous sale throughout the country, as well as the environmental impact of the dirty by-product arising from the cleansing of that diesel. However, the Government has done nothing to take on board this measure. It clearly has not accepted this worthwhile proposal, which would have had a meaningful impact on the environment and which had the capacity to raise additional revenue for the State. The Government has ignored this proposal and is pushing ahead with what I believe will be an anti-competitive measure and is going back to relying on the old reliables.

The Government talks a lot about tourism and the Minister referred to it in his budget speech today. This measure is an attack on tourism because as the Taoiseach is aware, many tourists travel through the country on coaches and buses. Representatives of the coach tour business have been in touch with me. They are dismayed by the proposal on VAT and its impact on their ability to disperse tourists around the country. In their view, it will force tourists to remain in the cities, rather than dispersing throughout the country. This approach is highly anti-competitive and will affect the capacity to get exports and products from this State to the central markets of Europe. Moreover, it will have a negative impact on tourism. For this reason, I appeal to the Government to withdraw this measure and find some other way to raise the funds concerned.

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