How farming lobby and FG help the diesel launderers

ANOTHER week, another highly publicised ‘seizure’ by the state of a diesel-laundering plant on the border with all the ensuing guff about how much has been saved for the Exchequer by this great piece of detective work by customs and gardaí. All this use of State resources could be saved in one fell swoop – simply stop dyeing diesel to sell it cheap to farmers and fishermen.

Overnight, according to a report presented to a Dáil committee, this would save the state €750m annually. That does not even take into account the amount we have to spend to get rid of the toxic sludge produced when the ‘dye’ is removed by criminals to get the higher-priced diesel. The taxpayer is paying to put the dye in and paying the cost of clearing up the collateral damage caused by criminals getting it out!

And why, may you ask – when the Government risks being swept away by the great unwashed who have risen against water charges, which at most will raise one quarter of the cost of dyeing diesel – does the Government not simply stick with one type of diesel and operate a rebate system for farmers and fishermen?

But be baffled no more. All is revealed this week in a new book by John Walshe, the former education correspondent who went from journalism to become a special adviser to Labour education minister Ruairi Quinn.

One of the big shocks to Walshe was the inordinate power of the farming lobby.

At the height of the economic collapse, when savage cutbacks to carers and disabled people were being announced almost on a daily basis, the minister put forward a simple proposal that the assets of farmers be taken into account when determining eligibility for third-level grants.

Quinn presented numerous examples from a Government report that recommended change: one farmer with 122 acres had assets of €250,000 but his annual income was €20,000. In truth, farm owners had a much better chance of getting third-level grants for their children than farm labourers on a PAYE income.

Walshe was gobsmacked at the Fine Gael reaction. Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney simply said no, despite the economic implosion. Quinn could not even get the issue to the Cabinet table.

Walshe describes a meeting on February 14 last year on the issue where ‘the Fine Gael team devoured us – it was a red line issue for them’. But this St Valentine’s Day massacre was not even executed by elected representatives of Fine Gael – Labour was ‘devoured’ by a team of five unelected Fine Gael advisers.

Of course, no one remembers that Michael Noonan caved in to Simon Coveney a few months ago when he changed the law to abolish a windfall tax on farmland. This in a country that is so bankrupt it has decided to go to war with the urban masses over water.

And then follows the revelation that ‘Irish’ agrifood company Glanbia, primarily owned by Irish farmers and receiving major tax breaks and grants, does its utmost to channel €1bn of its profits through a shelf company in Luxembourg – all perfectly legal. Not exactly the ‘double Irish’ from Ireland’s biggest double-cream and cheese producer but enough to drive the rest of us crackers.

An Education, by John Walshe (Penguin, €18.50).