Northern Ireland: Illegal Petrol and Diesel

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Hylton

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I do not know about the past, but in very recent times HMRC has had in-house resources in Northern Ireland to deal specifically with this issue. Additional funding has gone to the road fuel testing units, which are crucial. There is the introduction of a new, more effective marker just round the corner. It is worth informing the House—to demonstrate that we are being effective in this area—that a plant capable of producing more than 8 million litres of laundered fuel was recently found and dismantled in a cattle shed in Crossmaglen.

[Lord Hylton (CB)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that cheaper diesel and petrol prices in the Republic have forced the closure of most filling stations in Northern Ireland in a strip 10 or 20 miles wide along the border? Will the Government therefore move to equalise fuel taxes, as is being done in the case of corporation taxes?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the setting of the duty rates for diesel and petrol are obviously done at a UK level. Although this is a problem, it is only one of the many considerations that have to be taken into account. There has been a differential in diesel pricing between the Republic and Northern Ireland for a very long time. Some people are obviously going across the border but, as I said earlier, as a proportion of the total consumption of diesel in Northern Ireland it is relatively modest.