Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Labour Party spokespeople who tabled the motion last night on charities. Senator Bacik stated today that there was a good and worthwhile debate last night and I agree. The fact that Ireland is one of the few countries that does not have a regulator for charities is indicative of the work the Seanad can do. We can draw attention to such areas.

Another issue to which we should be drawing attention is diesel laundering. The House may have heard that yesterday there was another huge diesel laundering plant found on the Monaghan Border. There is an answer to this problem. We are one of the few countries that uses a system of colouring diesel to distinguish between duty-paid diesel and agricultural diesel. Let us find another solution.

I am reminded of the efforts in the United States where they introduced prohibition in 1919. It was exactly the introduction of prohibition, which may have been worthy at the time, that gave rise to such gangsterism and criminality and it was 1932 before they abolished it. Something similar is occurring here. The amount of criminal activity, especially around the Border area, is something we should be doing something about. I am keen to see attention drawn to it in whatever way we can do it from this House.

I call on the Leader to consider a debate at some point in future - it is not immediately urgent - on archives. We had a good debate on maintaining archives. The legislation holds that if one prints a book one must register it and a copy goes to Trinity College and elsewhere. Most archives nowadays are not necessarily printed books. There are archives in radio and television. Until recently, RTE did not take note of the tapes it had and used tapes over and over again. Historians will come back at a later stage. Now that we are coming up to the 1916 anniversary, it seems we should value our archives and the information we have. We should take steps to ensure that future historians can look back, learn, remember and find out what we have to be proud of.