Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The initiatives taken in the last two Finance Bills are working, especially the one on traceability. In one case, thousands of litres of fuel were being delivered to the equivalent of a corner shop where, obviously, there was no outlet to sell it. Traceability is the key. Previously there was no traceability of the identities of the customers of the big fuel farms which supplied central heating oil. Since the initiative on traceability was taken it has been possible to identify, all the way from the port of import or point of refinery to the end user, if huge amounts of fuel are being delivered to locations that cannot legitimately include them in the retail trade. Investigations usually end up with the discovery of a fuel laundry. The legitimate trade takes the view that this initiative is working and that the sale of diesel has increased by 5% in 12 months, partly due to a little growth in the economy but mostly because the illegitimate traders have been taken out.

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