Fuel Laundering

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Questions (260)

Brendan Smith

Question:

260. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the arrangements he has put in place with the Minister for the Environment in the Northern Ireland Executive, Oireachtas Members from counties Cavan, Monaghan and Louth, and Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in County Armagh, to meet in the Armagh/Louth/Monaghan area, to discuss the ongoing damage caused by the illegal trade in fuel, as requested by a number of Deputies during a Topical Issues debate on 21 January 2015; when this meeting will take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9818/15]

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Written answers

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government

As I outlined in the reply to Question No. 279 of 5 February 2015, I have written to my counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive, Minister Mark Durkan, to highlight again the problems being faced by border counties exposed to the consequences of environmental crime and I have signalled to him that this is an issue that I will be raising at the next meeting of the North South Ministerial Council in May. The Council meets in the Environment Sector in order to discuss common policies and approaches in a cross-border context in areas such as environmental protection, pollution, water quality management and waste management and this is, I believe, the most appropriate forum to address this serious issue from a waste and water quality perspective.

More generally, I believe that a complete solution to this problem must necessarily involve effective and co-ordinated enforcement of the law from both a revenue and waste management perspective. In that context, my Department continues to liaise with representatives of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the local authorities concerned and the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement to seek to identify more effective enforcement solutions and these engagements will continue.