Abolition of farm diesel is sought by hauliers

Farm diesel must be abolished to eliminate the black economy in the haulage industry, the Irish Road Haulage Association has said.

Rogue hauliers using "washed" farm diesel were driving genuine operators out of business and increasing the pressure of the oil crisis, the IRHA told the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business yesterday.

"There is a total lack of commitment to enforce the law on unscrupulous operators," IRHA president Mr Eamonn Morrissey said. Hauliers, under pressure from spiralling fuel costs, faced unfair competition from operators prepared to cut costs by working in the black economy using washed diesel, he added.

Fines handed down by the courts were not sufficient to deter these operators and the Government was not taking the necessary steps to protect the legitimate industry, which was the only one of value to the Exchequer, he said.

"The use of washed diesel fuel is now a business that is worth tens of millions of euros without any benefit to our Exchequer and can even be found on sale through service stations today."

The method of removing the dye from farm diesel had become so sophisticated that detection was nearly impossible. However he said, the fuel must at some point have come from a legitimate source.

"The Government needs to make these distributors responsible for where their oil goes," Mr Morrissey said.

Farm diesel, both in the State and in Northern Ireland, should be abolished and farmers should instead be given a rebate to compensate for diesel costs. The elimination of farm diesel would protect genuine hauliers and remove a serious health risk.

"Must we wait until we have the ultimate contamination of some town's or city's water supply by the hazardous waste created from washing diesel, before our Government or judiciary realise that action is required immediately?"

Labour TD Mr Brendan Howlin said the use of illegal diesel must be stopped to cut the funding of illegal organisations.

"This needs to be done, not only to afford the haulage industry a full level playing pitch, but to combat the serious element of funding to paramilitary organisations and even to politics itself North and South that is funded by washed diesel," he said.