(Limerick East): That was a serious imposition. I accept that the Minister has refrained from putting extra excise duty on that but an increase took place last week and it is an extra cost to the economy. In my view, it confirms that there is a counter trend upward in petroleum products. If one matches that scenario with our disadvantages as an economy, hanging out on the periphery of Europe, and the absolute necessity to get our transport costs not only into line with Europe but lower, last week's move seems to be very unwise. I would have thought that the Government would have absorbed the price decrease and taken an excise increase in petrol. I would have thought that they would have used that money to reduce the excise duty on auto diesel to at least cancel out the 6.5p imposed last week. That would have made sense. Will the Taoiseach accept that if he had absorbed the 5p as an excise increase in petrol and used the total take to reduce the price of auto diesel, it would have amounted to a reduction of 20p to 25p per gallon. If that is the case, it would represent a significant reduction in cost factors in the economy.
The Taoiseach, and the Minister, are fully conversant with the fact that our transport costs are so out of line that they will be one of the great drags on us as we try to achieve economic growth. That drag will be worse after 1992 or whenever the Channel Tunnel goes into commission. Then we will be the only island EC country. Whatever the efficacy of the ports and the competitiveness of access transport, if we are to be an export-led economy, the goods have to be taken to the port in the first instance and hauled by road. The cost factors that have to be addressed are the excise duty on auto diesel and petrol; the excise duty on motor vehicles, particularly articulated trucks, and the roads infrastructure. It is a combination of those three factors that result in it costing 40 per cent more to shift a metric tonne here over an equivalent distance in the UK. That amounts to a huge disadvantage.
The Taoiseach may have information which corrects my figures but what I have said is more or less the run of transport costs. We are about 40 per cent on the wrong side of the line. I am aware of how budgets are put together and that very often the give away side is arranged in advance of the take side. If one has a programme in mind to give such an amount on social welfare, such an amount on income tax and such an amount on reducing the debt, it must be funded. After that one goes around to see where the money can be found and the old reliables are always old reliables. In the heel of the hunt, Ministers may say, "instead of putting on 2p, why do we not make it 5p". Those of us who have been in Cabinet have been involved in such discussion but in this case the cost of transport is a serious disincentive and drag on the Irish economy. For those reasons, we are facing a serious problem and it would have been better had the Minister clawed in the revenue on petrol but given it back in the form of relief on auto diesel. I do not intend to oppose the resolution tonight but I would have liked to amend it along the lines I am suggesting. I do not have power to do that but it may be possible to amend this proposal in the debate on the Finance Bill. The Minister for Finance should give serious consideration to what I am saying, especially if, in the meantime, there is an increase at the pumps in the price of auto diesel and petrol. If that occurs we should look for a change in the system so as to reduce the cost of transport.
I take the points about the Border and I am sure all Members are aware of the difficulties experienced by retailers in that area. People drive across the Border, fill their cars with petrol and return home. They will continue to do that especially if there is an increase at the pumps here. I presume that international factors which caused the reduction of 5p per gallon here will also apply in Northern Ireland and that the price there will reduce by 5p at about the same time that it stays static here. Therefore, the relatives will have changed and there will be an incentive to go across the Border. This is a serious issue although the amount of money involved is small.
It is also serious when we look at the harmonisation of excise duties. I take the Taoiseach's point and I agree that it will be very difficult to move in the politically sensitive areas, as they call them. How can one get up and say, "we are going to have cheaper cigarettes and cheaper drink but we are going to tax food, children's shoes and clothes"? Whatever they may say in Europe, that does not make sense to me. If there is an out where, for health reasons, we do not have to bring down the price of tabacco or the price of drink by dramatic amounts, then so be it, but at least let us discuss them for the tourist industry. The area of excise duty on petroleum products is absolutely essential to manufacturing industry, to businesses that are export-led and to all distributive trades. We are not simply talking about the foreign multinationals sending container loads of computer parts to our ports. Any person who is distributing to the small shop in rural Ireland knows what I am talking about. I am referring to the bakeries, the post office vans and so on who make the small deliveries to shops in out of the way places. This has to be brought into line and I urge the Minister to have a second look at this between now and the Finance Bill to see if he can, within the constraints that everybody finds on themselves on occasions like this, adopt a more targeted approach in line with the ultimate objective of reducing the cost of transport, which I am sure all Members share.
