John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I am very pleased to see further co-operation and the integration of information technology for customs purposes. I am conscious that in Ireland, because of a convergence of events, including tax rates and currency, there is a large moral hazard on our borders leading to cross-Border smuggling. This moral hazard extends further because those who get involved in well-organised gangster-type operations have in the past laundered cash and oil and changed tags on different goods to get grants. These gangsters attempt to style themselves paramilitaries. I fear that the huge divergence created by the 30% decrease in the value of sterling means that there is a huge moral hazard that must be dealt with effectively and comprehensively to ensure the Continuity IRA or the Real IRA do not have access to funds. Not only do the Revenue Commissioners lose money and illegal goods and drugs come across the Border, there is also a paramilitary threat. This is a serious situation.

Within the EU cigarette prices between countries can diverge by 500% which raises the question of smuggling and taxation. We need to watch that area. Very sophisticated operations seem to exist in the Balkan countries, the former Yugoslavia, where the level of crime is almost a subculture in many areas. That is feeding into itself. Sharing information, pooling resources and the absolute necessity of dealing with illegal drugs, given the harm they do, is most important. It is more cost effective to deal with the problem at source than with its results. I commend the methods of the Revenue Commissioners and the Customs and Excise officials who have recently made major hauls, such as the €50 million of cigarettes in County Louth. That was a great success and I hope it puts many of these gangster-style operations out of business for good.

We should perhaps consider the sentences being handed down to people who handle illegal cigarettes. It is perhaps time to increase the sentences. In some cases people receive only a very low €500 fine. It is not appropriate that it should be so low in today's world. We need to get a bit tougher in this area, even at the small end of the business such as trading cigarettes on the streets because that leads to further backstream gangster operations which are very dangerous and can involve other operations which are even more sinister than illegal cigarettes. I warmly welcome the use of information technology and further co-operation between Customs and Excise services.