Senator John McGahon- speech from 27 Sep 2023

Thank you very much, Kay Hurlough. I was just speaking to my colleague there, Senator Gallagher, about this, and this is an issue that border politicians would be very much aware of. And coming from a border area, and if you're involved in business, you have always had to deal with price discrepancies on either side of the border. People in entrepreneurs and businesses in border areas on both sides have always had to have a certain level of ingenuity to make sure that their businesses are operating at a good margin. But over the last couple of weeks, I spoke to a number of people who are involved with service stations in North Louth and Dundalk, and they have been discussing this concept of the excise increases. And again, they've raised some of their concerns with me. So the government have introduced this in a three-staged approach, where on the 1st of June, petrol was 6 cents per litre, the 1st of September, 7 cents, and by the 31st of October, it's 8%. Now, the issue with that is, and I know this has been discussed at a government level about the third increase, and I appreciate that there has been a lot of back and forth and engagement with the organisations in relation to this, but the problem is that I, and it's clear, it's very clear about this mathematically speaking, if those increases go that way, it will be cheaper, if you are living in North Louth, to get in your car, to drive over to the north, to fill up your car in the north and come back around. It will be a huge price discrepancy in the price of petrol and diesel in South Armagh, drive five minutes later, it will be more expensive in Hackballs Cross. So that is the problem, and that has always been an issue around border areas, maintaining that equilibrium between both sides, because we don't want everyone from here rushing over there to buy diesel and petrol, and likewise for the businesses on the other side of the north. It was the same with food and everything else in the 1980s and the 1990s. So I just want to put that on the record of the House today. It is certainly something that many people involved in service stations in North Louth and along the border region are concerned about, and I really welcome the engagement that the government have given so far to try and fix this situation for them. We will have workers.