Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In 2015, Deputy Brendan Smith produced legislation with others in this House to set up a statutory agency drawing from the Revenue Commissioners, the police and environmental organisations to deal with the corrosive impact of fuel laundering and cigarette smuggling, which has been felt in the Border region for so long.

The Government at the time opposed the legislation but took elements of it by way of the Fresh Start agreement and a task force. However, it will no longer cut it. The point made in my presentation was this has gone on for decades at this stage. The existing operation is not working. The PSNI and An Garda Síochána co-operate well in tackling paramilitary violence and foiling bomb attacks and so on but, fundamentally, there is an alternative world in the Border region. There is considerable fear and a culture of omerta across the region which has its roots in the corrosive legacy of violence which has been ongoing for 30 or 40 years. It did not stop after the Good Friday Agreement. People have empires there. The murder of Veronica Guerin sparked the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau. I was in this House at the time when Fianna Fáil produced the relevant legislation while in opposition because the murder demanded such a response. The assault on Kevin Lunney is the last straw. We must provide protection and quality of life for people in the region and its economy. We must safeguard their livelihoods and provide pathways to attract investment. Above all, we must protect human life and property. That is why a statutory agency is needed. We are going to reintroduce the legislation. I want the Minister to go back to the Taoiseach and the Government for them to have an open mind, with a view to working to establish such a statutory cross-Border agency to, once and for all, take on the thugs and criminals and send the message that the only authority is that of democratic law and order and that no other will rule or reign on any part of the island.

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