Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Breathnach for bringing this proposal for legislation before the House. As Deputies from Border areas know, there is a further expansion and explosion of illicit trade at the moment. We are approaching Christmas, which is the most important period for many retail businesses in Ireland for selling goods and making a living, yet due to the illicit trade, especially along the Border, many people's livelihoods effectively will be wiped out, destroyed or reduced to a feebleness that means their long-term viability is at stake.

The Bill proposes to cause a shock to consumers because should they be involved in the purchase of illicit goods, they might be subject to a penalty. Large numbers of young people have no awareness that buying items, particularly alcohol and cigarettes, from the equivalent of the back of a van, or walking down to Moore Street or other market areas throughout the State and buying items the provenance of which they are unsure but which are much cheaper have serious social and economic consequences. There are also serious health consequences for the users of these counterfeit and illicit products. It is a problem in a consumer-driven society. I can understand that many Deputies would balk at introducing a consumer-oriented penalty, but we must recognise that the proposal results from both frustration and fear. We are in the middle of a discussion about technology being the way to a frictionless, seamless border that will properly provide for the passage of goods and services back and forth over the Border in Ireland. Notwithstanding that, there is a great risk of illicit activity increasing in the event of a difficult Brexit.

Deputy Breathnach calculated that there was a significant loss of revenue to the Exchequer which brings me to a political point. Ours is a State with strong welfare, education and health systems, which we would all like to be better resourced. The State relies on taxation to provide those resources. If a significant cohort of people, be they criminal gangs or individuals, are able to avoid paying legitimate taxes on products the services that we want to provide in all areas of Ireland, urban and rural, will be beyond our means. There are strong fiscal reasons to give this legislation serious consideration.

Furthermore, in the case that any Minister for Finance experiences an additional inflow of revenue, some of that must be spent on beefing up the capacity of customs and Revenue resources to pursue these types of offences. In Revenue, the old style inspector of taxes has gone and there are many more general staff, who, to be fair, are doing their best to train-up. However, in places such as Dundalk and Letterkenny, we need more specialist staff, whether they be formally allocated to customs or Revenue staff, to crack down on these Border gangs. The same is true of policing services. We need to recognise that what is happening along the Border is undermining our efforts to achieve a fair and balanced taxation system which allows the kind of services that we all want to be available.

On tobacco, it is galling that while we are running a successful tobacco harm-reduction campaign and, hopefully, persuading more people to give up cigarettes, there is a back door facility where the stuff can be bought as cheaply as possible. We do not recognise how that contributes to encouraging young people, in particular, to continue to smoke, and when they can buy alcohol so cheaply, to drink to excess in a way that can so often shatter their personal lives, not to mention their long-term health and the peace and contentment of their families.

It is essential that we are very clear-eyed that, no matter what type of Brexit emerges, we must address smuggling and contraband. I am told that many smugglers do not just travel along the Border but they bring their contraband deep into the Republic, 100 miles or more away from their traditional area. One must consider that all this returns to burden small-scale retailers, pubs and other outlets, particularly in rural Ireland, who simply cannot compete in any serious way with contraband markets that offer so much at cheaper prices, robbing the Exchequer of its correct revenue.

This discussion is timely. We should take consequences into account, on the one hand, of increased smoking and alcohol consumption because of this trade and, on the other, of the State's taxation capacity. As such, I welcome the Bill. It will be a matter for Government primarily but it would be interesting to see it support the Bill and use the consequent revenue to put in place a better system and better services.

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