Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Acting Chairman for the opportunity to contribute on this Bill. Although Deputy Dooley has raised an important issue for discussion, I will not support the Bill. We are all aware of the high cost of fuel. The sharp rise in recent years has mainly been due to external factors, such as political tensions in the Middle East and north Africa. The rise in fuel costs affects many sectors from private car usage to business. However, we must consider the revenue that the State needs to earn. If the proposed changes were introduced in their current format, there would be a large loss of income. The Minister of State, Deputy Perry, detailed the situation in his address to the House yesterday evening. The cost of these proposed changes would reduce the State's income by €178 million in a full year. This money would need to be found somewhere else, but doing so would be difficult. We must accept that we cannot spend more than we earn.

That said, Deputy Dooley has made a good point regarding the difficulties that the cost of fuel is causing road hauliers. As fuel costs are a cause of concern for their important industry, the Government has set up a working group between the Department of Finance, the IRHA and the Revenue Commissioners. I am glad to say that I am a member of the working group. The IRHA sought such a group for many years, but the Fianna Fáil Administration did not oblige it. To emphasise how seriously the Minister, Deputy Noonan, is taking this issue, he set up the working group in February and, to date, we have met six times, including today. The working group has been examining a number of issues in regard to the difficulties being experienced by road hauliers.

We all recognise the difficulties that the haulage industry is experiencing and how that affects our wider economy. In some European countries, hauliers can get a rebate on the purchase price of diesel. There is an entire economy known as "tank tourism" in countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium. Many hauliers fill their tanks when leaving those countries and use them on Irish roads. The IRHA has surveyed 9,000 hauliers of its 16,000 membership. We are trying to evaluate the cost to the State of implementing such a rebate. A rebate of approximately 8% would be required to attract people to start buying diesel in Ireland again.

As well as the price of fuel, another large issue is that of fuel laundering. Deputy Dooley referred to the fact that there was a lack of understanding at Government level of the urgent need to tackle this issue. This is not the case, as can be seen by the fact that there is ongoing engagement with the IRHA concerning this issue. The talks to date have been frank on both sides and there has been good engagement by those involved. We are trying to find a process that would address the green diesel issue, in particular its laundering as "washed diesel".

Enforcement action is ongoing and legislative changes that will enable more effective controls in this sector have been included in this year's Finance Act. There is a new licence for marked fuel traders that requires them to be tax compliant and periodic returns of information must be submitted to Revenue. We are also working with the UK authorities, especially in the Border area.

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