Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While reading this Bill, I found myself wondering what was the purpose of its introduction in the House today. The purpose may have been to throw a little muck or, more appropriately, sludge about the place in the hope that some of it would land on or stick to Sinn Féin. However, a benign interpretation might be that a fair amount of work went into this Bill and were it not for the Stormont initiative on fuel smuggling, there would be a place for its provisions. Consequently, for the purposes of today's debate, I will take the benign interpretation that there would have been a place for this Bill had it not been for the Stormont initiative on tackling fuel smuggling and the joint agency set up to put it into effect. However, I am surprised that once that initiative was taken at Stormont, the movers of the Bill did not examine what had been written to consider the possibility it should be changed.

One talks about borders such as the Border between the Six Counties and the Twenty-six Counties, but there are many borders in this country, as there are in every country. There is a border between good and evil and between the wealthy and the poor. There is a border between the powerful and powerless and between the privileged and the ordinary citizen. There is criminality in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Sligo and every part of this country. It is not confined to a geographical area between the Twenty-six Counties and the Six Counties. Criminality is everywhere and fuel laundering has been ongoing. Together with other criminality, it was facilitated because there was a disjoint between the police services in the Six Counties and the Twenty-six Counties. I am glad Deputy Smith referred to so-called republicans, because no republican - and no genuine loyalist, for that matter - would launder fuel that left citizens who got a fill of petrol with immobilised vehicles. This is not done from any sense of patriotism but because they are crooks and criminals whose objective is to amass as much money as they can for themselves. Sinn Féin is to the forefront in empowering communities to face this activity and to not bow to those criminal elements.

Enforcement can be a problem. When the Revenue Commissioners appeared before an Oireachtas joint committee last year - I cannot remember in which month - a figure was given that 130 filling station forecourts had been closed. Incidentally, in all of this, how do I know that what I put into my central heating tank at home is not polluted or poisonous? I know because I have dealt with the same trusted dealer through the years and I know that whatever is going into the tank certainly will not be deliberately contaminated. When I saw the figure indicating that 130 petrol filling stations had been closed, I thought this constituted good enforcement that would discourage people from putting this poison into their engines. However, when I asked further questions as to how many were closed on foot of selling contaminated fuel, the answer was zero - not a single station. They were closed because of non-compliance with the regulations. Many were closed because they had not submitted returns by due dates - that is, the administration was wrong. It is a case of letting stations sell contaminated fuel without being closed but, having missed a date by which returns must be made, 130 of them were closed. Enforcement is a problem.

The area of difference between the Bill and what has been decided through the Stormont initiative - that is, the joint agency - is that there is a focus on the environment in the former. However, environmental legislation is already in place that can and should be used if those involved in fuel laundering are damaging the environment. I hope Members will have the same concerns in respect of potential pollution of the environment when they eventually make the decision in respect of hydraulic fracturing. I am glad Fianna Fáil has now agreed it was wrong to invite expressions of interest from companies to engage in hydraulic fracturing, and that it now accepts that there are examples from around the world in which the environment, the air, and people's health have been badly damaged by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and there is no place for it in a small, beautiful island like Ireland. I support the intention behind the Bill to preserve our green, clean environment, because it is what we do best; we do green.

I reiterate that a benign interpretation of the Bill is that the drafting started before the Stormont initiative on fuel smuggling was agreed. It is as though people decided that, as they had put a lot of work into it, it should proceed. However, I believe that because the Stormont initiative will do most of what is provided for in this Bill and the existing environmental protection legislation covers the rest of it, events have overtaken the Bill.

See this speech in context