{"id":122,"date":"2018-10-24T11:07:44","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T11:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=122"},"modified":"2018-10-24T11:07:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T11:07:44","slug":"sale-of-illicit-goods-bill-2017-to-be-debated-in-the-dail-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2018\/10\/24\/sale-of-illicit-goods-bill-2017-to-be-debated-in-the-dail-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Sale of Illicit Goods Bill 2017 To Be Debated in The D\u00e1il Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) has welcomed a debate due to take place in the D\u00e1il this evening (17.20) on Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Private Members Bill the Sale of Illicit Goods Bill 2017. The Bill, which was introduced by Fianna F\u00e1il TD for Louth\/Meath East Declan Breathnach aims to create a deterrent to purchasing smuggled goods like cigarettes, alcohol and solid fuel which undercut Irish retailers. The Bill makes it an offence to purchase such goods from an unregistered or unlicenced retailer, provides for the imposition of a penalty in respect of such offences and provides for an on-the-spot fine in respect of such offences.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Bill is a significant step in combatting smuggling into Ireland which is a growing problem. Revenue\u2019s Tobacco Survey 2017<a href=\"https:\/\/app.mediahq.com\/#_ftn1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0revealed that 13% of all packs of cigarettes held in Ireland are illegal \u2013 this amounts to approximately 520 million cigarettes consumed. This represents a loss to the Exchequer of \u20ac229 million in 2017 alone. Revenue\u2019s 2017 annual report showed that it also seized 95,021 litres of illicit alcohol with an estimated value of \u20ac0.91 million.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>RAS spokesman, Benny Gilsenan said\u00a0<em>\u201cThe issue of smuggling has grown more apparent than ever in 2018 so the timing of this Bill is significant. We saw the discovery of a massive cigarette factory in Louth this year, as well as two fuel laundering plants. With the recent tobacco excise increase in Budget 2019 and the smoky coal ban due to be implemented next year as well as a potential hike in carbon tax, the likelihood of an increase in tobacco and fuel smuggling over the border is extremely high.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Gilsenan continued\u00a0<em>\u201cThis Bill will help protect small retailers by deterring the purchase of illicit goods. This goes some way to closing the gaping holes in Irish legislation that have existed until now and we hope that all members of D\u00e1il Eireann will support it to protect our small and medium retail sector.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While RAS welcome the legislation, we also recognise that Revenue officials and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na need more resources to combat smuggling in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBrexit has created a political atmosphere that will likely make cross-border smuggling more lucrative, with a fluctuating sterling and potential tariffs. The Bill ensures that a major gap in the legislation surrounding the illicit trade is closed \u2013 the next steps are to ensure that retailers and Revenue do not lose out on yet more money to criminals,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Gilsenan continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) has welcomed a debate due to take place in the D\u00e1il this evening (17.20) on Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Private Members Bill the Sale of Illicit Goods Bill 2017. The Bill, which was introduced by Fianna F\u00e1il TD for Louth\/Meath East Declan Breathnach aims to create a deterrent to purchasing smuggled goods like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-news","category-illicit-goods"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}