Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her contribution and the other speakers who participated in this important debate.

On Deputy Maloney’s question as to why this issue was not tackled previously, in recent years, fuel smuggling and laundering has become more sophisticated and extensive. Those involved have scientists working for them, using technology which is ahead of the State’s services. Unfortunately, when we had the Troubles on our doorstep, those of us from Ulster know, like Deputy Maloney and myself, that there was probably less smuggling when there were permanent vehicle checkpoints on the Border, be they British Army or RUC. In recent years, it has become a large, well-resourced and sophisticated industry. Deputy Michael Colreavy, whose contribution was fair and positive in stark contrast to his party colleague who spoke earlier, would have heard, like those of us who grew up in the Border counties, of small-scale smuggling, such as bringing food products across the Border during the war and so forth.

From the stories I read in local histories, it was very small-scale stuff involving single operators. It did not involve the big, sophisticated operators who are engaged in this criminal activity today. That is the difference. In the past, we did not have the co-operation between North and South that we have today. The co-operation between statutory agencies, Departments and at ministerial level has grown exponentially since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. There is room for more of that growth.

Deputy Colreavy asked why this legislation is being proposed now. I proposed it on 5 March 2015 but we have waited a long time to get the legislation to Second Stage. It has not become redundant. I welcome the Minister of State's acknowledgement that many of the issues we have been raising for quite some time have been taken into account in the talks in Stormont House. It was rather comical, to put it mildly and in parliamentary terms, for Deputy Stanley to say that Fianna Fáil was late to highlight the dangers of criminality and smuggling along the Border. I will not waste time by dealing in detail with his comments. The Deputy had a hysterical outburst and put on record statements that were totally incorrect. The only thing he did not say about the Stormont House Agreement was something the Tánaiste mentioned in the House last week when she asked the Sinn Féin Party if it was very glad it had agreed to hand back to Westminster powers with regard to welfare that had been delegated to Northern Ireland. Deputy Stanley should answer that question instead of making some of the erroneous statements he put on the record this morning.

I welcome the measures that have been proposed following the Fresh Start agreement but the reality is that they are proposals. They are not measures and have not been agreed in detail for implementation yet. There can be agreements but unfortunately it takes a long time for agreements to be implemented down to the finer detail. Our legislation offers the Government the opportunity to use it as a vehicle to introduce some of those measures that we hope can be agreed between North and South and between the Irish and British Governments.

Deputy Durkan, Deputy Moynihan and I were here when the Criminal Assets Bureau was established. That put a particular focus on dealing with that criminal activity. Deputy Maloney and Deputy Colreavy referred earlier to the fact that many of these powers are already in place and vested in different Departments and statutory agencies. We all know that far too often agencies and Departments work in silos. They do not work together and the necessary focus is not put on issues. One should consider the success of the Criminal Assets Bureau. It was given a specific remit and had different personnel form different statutory organisations. Its work was very effective. The agency we propose would put a particular focus on the many aspects associated with smuggling and associated criminality. That should not be delayed. Deputy Stanley tried to suggest that Fianna Fáil said there were more people along the Border engaged in criminality than elsewhere in the country. We said no such thing. Sadly, a small number of well-resourced criminals are active in the Border region. That is different from saying there are a larger number of criminals proportionately in the Border reason than anywhere else. I reject and utterly resent Deputy Stanley's totally false insinuation in this respect.

I proposed that the County Cavan joint policing committee ask officers from the Revenue Commissioners to attend. Local officers from the Cavan-Monaghan division attended and gave us a great rundown on the activities and particular challenges they face in dealing with stations that closed and re-opened. There has been some easing off in diesel laundering as a result of the new dye that has been introduced. That happened in the past when the State devised new mechanisms that were subsequently bypassed by the sophistication of the operators. About a week ago, a close friend of mine, a young lady in Cavan who is the mother of two children and works in the public service, filled her relatively new car with diesel. Soon after, the car stopped and she has to fork out €1,200, which she does not have, to repair the engine. That diesel is still in the system and those gangsters and criminals are still getting their ill-gotten gains and able to maintain their lifestyles. They pose particular difficulties for the local communities.

Deputy Maloney made the valid point about people knowingly buying illicit product. There is a fuel chain. The people who have diesel laundering plants have outlets and recipients on their forecourts, but any individual motorist travelling around the country could stop and fill up with that petrol or diesel. They are not knowingly buying illegal product. Unfortunately, they are buying product that will destroy the engine of their vehicle. That has happened often. It is not an easy situation and I pay tribute to members of the Garda Síochána and Customs and Excise who have dealt with these thugs over the years and have had a very challenging job in dealing with these issues. I have said on the record of the House that the authorities north of the Border have not been as diligent as ours. We will accomplish that when we have an agency that includes representatives from our statutory agencies working alongside the representatives of those north of the Border. That is essential.

I refer again to the Minister of State's role in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government which she has highlighted today. It is not provided for in the Stormont House Agreement proposals made in early November 2015. As Deputies Maloney and Colreavy have said, the damage to the environment has to be a major consideration for us. Sludge and carcinogenic products are being dumped in fields and drains that feed into major tributaries and river systems that supply public drinking water. I emphasise that we cannot, as a country, afford to have sludge or other by-products dumped on countryside lanes or in fields. The farming community and the taxpayer have put a huge effort into building up a very credible agrifood industry. That has been done through huge effort by farmers and at cost to the farmer and taxpayer. We should all be very proud of the very high standards that have been set. We cannot allow gangsters and criminals to be given the opportunity to dump material in our countryside. That can put the authenticity, provenance and good name of our food production systems in question. The legislative measure we propose gives the Government the opportunity to amend and improve it. It will allow it to put in place a mechanism which draws together the necessary personnel to ensure agencies do not work in silos and that there is a concentration in one agency to deal with this issue which has so many aspects to it.

I thank those who contributed to the debate.

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