Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a very serious crime. Organised crime gangs are involved in it and they have tried to spread their activities throughout the island. It is clear that a combined approach by the Revenue Commissioners, the Garda Síochána and the PSNI is being used to deal with this issue. These crimes are being interrupted and the figures show this. We will take every action we need to with respect to dealing with this and prioritising it. There is a cross-Border taskforce on tobacco and cigarette smuggling and also on fuel laundering.

In 2014, there were 1,109 detections of marked fuel oil and two oil laundries were detected and shut down resulting in 50,000 litres of oil being seized. There were 5,852 seizures of cigarettes made by the Revenue Commissioners resulting in the seizure of 53 million cigarettes with a value of €25 million. This is an indication of the scale of the issue. There have been recent surveys on this. The Deputy quoted a figure of 25% for the number of cigarettes on the market which were brought into the country illegally or were smuggled. I understand that this figure is lower now. I will give the Deputy up-to-date figures.

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