Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to increase personnel in Customs and Excise in the border area to help eradicate the problem of laundered diesel in the border counties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16987/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Revenue is an integrated tax and customs administration. The Revenue Commissioners currently has approximately 2,000 staff engaged on activities that are dedicated to target and confront non-compliance. These front-line activities include anti-smuggling and anti-evasion, investigation and prosecution, audit, assurance checks, anti-avoidance, returns compliance and debt collection. Revenue has an enforcement presence at strategic locations throughout the State. Enforcement strength at particular locations is regularly augmented with additional personnel on a risk-assessment basis, or when particular operations are taking place. Revenue adopts a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problem of laundered diesel. Their “Strategy for Combating the Illegal Trade in Mineral Oils (2011-2013)”, which is published on the Revenue website (www.revenue.ie), includes a range of measures designed to complement each other in targeting the supply and demand sides of the market for laundered diesel. This strategy includes supply chain controls designed to deny fuel launderers access to marked fuel for laundering and to deny them access to the market for laundered fuel. In this work, Revenue is supported by well-established structures to ensure very close cooperation between all relevant agencies north and south of the border. The Cross Border Fuel Fraud Groupbrings together representatives from a number of agencies, including An Garda Síochána, the Criminal Assets Bureauand the PSNI, in addition to the Irish and UK Revenue authorities. There is excellent cooperation between all these agencies in the sharing of intelligence and identification and investigation of the organised criminals involved in this fraud. Measures taken to date include the introduction of a stronger licensing regime for the auto-fuel sector and the introduction of a new licensing regime for marked fuel traders in October 2012. From January 2013, new reporting requirements have taken effect which require all licensed fuel traders to report their transactions to Revenue on a monthly basis. This supply chain data will enable Revenue to identify suspicious or anomalous activity for investigation.

The Revenue Commissioners are subject to the Employment Control Framework staffing reductions imposed since 2009. Revenue’s overall staffing levels have reduced from a total of 6,581(FTE) at the end of 2008 to its current level of 5,780 (FTE). Notwithstanding this reduction, Revenue staff resources assigned to compliance activities have been maintained at around 2,000. The Revenue Commissioners have accorded a very high priority to the tackling of the illegal trade, including laundered diesel, and they are committed to ensuring that despite the staff reductions that this enforcement work will continue to be resourced to the maximum extent possible. The Deputy will appreciate that for reasons of operational sensitivity the Commissioners are not in a position to provide details or plans of enforcement deployment at any given location.