Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I was impressed to read this morning that the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, has taken responsibility for attempting to save somewhere between €50 million and €70 million in the purchasing of various goods by different agencies and Departments. I mention this because I am amazed how long it takes to get things done in our State. We seem to be very slow in this regard. A colleague of mine sat on a committee in April 1995, the report of which recommended almost exactly the same thing, namely, instead of the various agencies purchasing locally, they would be able to purchase centrally. While that issue is a threat to some local SMEs, the savings that were suggested in 1995 were just £15 million whereas we are now talking about €50 million to €70 million. However, it takes so long to get things done in State bodies and there must be a new urgency. I urge the Government to get behind the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, and support him on this to make sure things happen in time.

We debated the Construction Contracts Bill which went through this House during the last Government's time and had to then go to the Dáil before it comes back to this House to become law. While it has full all-party support, it has not even got to Committee Stage in the other House yet after a period of 15 to 18 months. We have to find a way of making things move and of getting things done, rather than delay.

An item in today's newspapers concerns fuel laundering, which is a scandal I raised some six or eight months ago. There must be a better system of identifying the fuel used in agriculture than the current system of adding colour to it. Senator Bacik referred to the week of science. This is a very simple challenge. Although I am not sure of the position in Britain, I believe we are the only country to use this system. In other European countries there are other systems under which farmers obtain reductions merely by showing their invoices and without the need to tamper with the fuel. During the raid that took place in County Monaghan yesterday equipment which could be used to launder 15 million litres of fuel per annum was discovered and some 40,000 litres of laundered fuel was seized. It appears we are extremely slow when it comes to getting things done. Let us take action in this matter immediately.