Sir, – The alternative to subsidising farmers by putting dye into the fuel and then selling it duty free is so simple in this electronic age that dyeing the fuel must be lucrative for some very powerful people. A diesel subsidy could be added to the single farm payment dependent on the farm machinery used on each farm. Or a smart card could be issued to each farm that would allow the farmer an allotted amount of duty-free diesel. This would eliminate the need for coloured diesel and also the need for roadside dipping or testing as all diesel would be white.
These alternatives may well be open to a certain amount of fraud and would have to be closely monitored but surely not open to as much fraud as the present system. The environment would be the big winner and the organised criminals would be the big losers. – Yours, etc,
PETER MURTAGH,
Armagh.