Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join in the welcome extended to the Minister of State to this important debate.

As a Senator who has raised the issue of illicit trade, particularly diesel and fuel laundering, on a number of occasions in this House so it is appropriate for me to make a few brief comments. I join with colleagues in complimenting Senator Paul Coghlan, and Senator Jim Walsh and others, who were involved in putting this very significant and important report together. It is crucial these criminals are put out of business quickly but that can only happen with the Garda, PSNI and all other authorities North and South of the Border co-operating to put an end to a criminality that has cost this State and the Northern Ireland Government significant amounts of money. The problem has had a significant impact on the environment because it damages water courses and costs local authorities a fortune to clean up the mess afterwards.

In the past couple of weeks I was contacted by a constituent from Laurencetown which is located just outside of Ballinasloe. She told me that her car and her daughter's car were damaged beyond repair as a result of faulty fuel or stretched petrol they had purchased from a filling station in Ballinasloe. The mother was fortunate because she had purchased her insurance from a long established insurance company which compensated her for the loss of her car. Her daughter was less fortunate because, as a young driver, she had purchased insurance from a company that was less reputable or had more exclusions and, therefore, had to suffer the loss of her car. We must ensure that the people responsible for providing faulty fuel or whatever are put out of business.

We must look at the legislation in the South to see how cowboy operators can rent a filling station here and quite easily commence selling fuel from a rented facility. They seem to be able to operate with impunity. They can purchase fuel from whatever source but a problem only comes to light when people's cars suffer which may only become evident several months later as a result of purchasing fuel from that location. By the time the authorities take a look at a particular station the owners will have packed up and gone. They probably will have defrauded the State by not filing VAT returns and moved on to somewhere else. We need to seriously look at these fly-by-night operators who have moved into various town throughout this country.

I applaud the many successes that the authorities have had in recent months. They have made significant seizures of illicit cigarettes and put some people in the illicit fuel trade out of business. A lot of work continues to be done. I welcome the report as a major step in the authorities coming together, to work even closer, to look at who these people are and how they can be put out of business permanently.

Without doubt there is a strong dissident republican element that participates in this activity and there is anecdotal evidence to support same. That situation makes it all the more difficult to end the activity once and for all. I urge the Garda and the Garda Commissioner to provide the resources required on this side of the Border that we have jurisdiction over. I call on the authorities in the North to make equally strong resources available. If resources are provided we can, once and for all, come to terms with this major criminality that has caused so much hardship to families and caused so much loss of revenue to the State. I applaud Senators Paul Coghlan and Jim Walsh. They have done the State some service, to quote a well known former Taoiseach. Let us hope they can continue to build on their good work they have commenced as a result of the production of this report.