Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) along\nwith CPL Fuels Ireland and Hardware Association Ireland (HAI) met with\nrepresentatives from the local Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and members of the Monaghan\nCounty Council to highlight their growing concerns with illicit trade of solid\nfuels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attendees at the\nCounty Monaghan Joint Policing Committee heard about the dire impact on\nsellers, distributors and manufacturers due to the levels of illicit solid fuel\ntrade in the border region, and the industry reiterated its concern over the\nGovernment\u2019s inadequate response to tackling the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
RAS Sub-Group member\nand CPL Fuels Managing Director Niall McGuinness spoke at the meeting saying \u201cWe urgently need greater visible action\nfrom the powers that be in tackling this issue that is ruining people\u2019s\nlivelihoods, or it will only get worse. Today was a good step forward and shone\na light on the real impact illicit solid fuel trade is having, particularly in\nthe border region\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n HAI\u2019s Jim Copeland\nsaid \u201cOur members are under extreme\npressure to keep up with the levels of fuel coming over the border. Some of\nthem have stopped selling fuel all together. A carbon tax increase will put\nover 1,200 jobs at risk \u2013 something must be done.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Solid fuel can\nrepresent up to half of some retailers\u2019 turnover, particularly in the Winter\nmonths. The illegal fuel trade is booming in Ireland and the Government must\nmake it a priority to protect Irish retailers especially in the lead up to\nBrexit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The illicit solid fuel\ntrade is costing the Exchequer over \u20ac9.7 million in lost revenue, which\nrepresents a loss of \u20ac36.5 million to retail merchants, putting many local\ntraders out of business. Different tax approaches in the Republic of Ireland\nand in Northern Ireland make a lorry load of coal \u20ac2,217 more expensive in the\nRepublic than in The North. A carbon tax hike in Budget 2020 will make this gap\neven larger and encourage smuggling of solid fuel over the border. \n\nRAS, CPL and HAI also\nraised the issue of fuel poverty at the meeting. 28% of people in Ireland\nexperience energy poverty. Those who can afford to buy 1 tonne of untaxed coal\nonline from Northern Ireland and have it delivered to their homes in the\nRepublic for personal use do so, while the 28% of citizens experiencing fuel\npoverty have no opportunity to do the same. This practice is contributing to\nthe cost gap between those Irish Citizens experiencing fuel poverty and those\nbenefitting from the lack of enforcement on fuel coming across the border. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) along with CPL Fuels Ireland and Hardware Association Ireland (HAI) met with representatives from the local Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and members of the Monaghan County Council to highlight their growing concerns with illicit trade of solid fuels. Attendees at the County Monaghan Joint Policing Committee heard about the dire impact on sellers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","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=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}