Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I subscribe to the view that further debate is needed on this issue. As Senator Fitzgerald has noted, we have previously debated aspects of it but there is one aspect we have not addressed, which is that one of the killings occurred in the Border area. The business of laundering diesel and so on has become a major industry and turf wars take place there all the time. The Good Friday Agreement was supposed to bring about shadow legislation and the shadowing of decisions. I do not understand why taxation should not enter into this. We are in a position to address commercially some of the issues in the area. There should be more co-operation between North and South on issues such as excise on diesel to make activity such as diesel laundering a non-runner. We have little chance of controlling the flow of drugs into this country if people can bring in thousands of litres of diesel without detection. We need to discuss these issues further and the chilling comment repeated by Senator Fitzgerald is important. As in Limerick and other places, we now know that the gang bosses are in charge.

In this House we have often requested that the leader of Sinn Féin condemn such criminal acts in the Border area. If one positive development has emerged from this matter, it is that the leader of Sinn Féin has done so in this case and has asked any person with information to co-operate with the Garda and Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI. We waited a long time to hear such a statement and it is important we heard it.

We need to have an extended debate on the Border in the context of what is proposed for the coming years. In the past ten years I have inquired approximately ten times in this House about Ireland's relationship with the Schengen Agreement and the fact that we must produce passports when travelling throughout Europe. As things stand, it seems we will have to show our passports when crossing the Border into the North and when travelling around Europe and we will lose in both ways.

We should sign up to the Schengen Agreement, especially as the UK is beginning its new arrangement on passports. Through this system we could bring about free travel within this island under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement. We are either part of Europe or we are not and it should not be beyond the ingenuity of man to find solutions to such matters. The idea is to allow free movement through borders.