DUP Member of the European Parliament Jim Allister QC has expressed his concern that the British shipping industry is being unfairly taxed in order to provide lighthouses and other maritime navigational aids in the Republic of Ireland. Mr. Allister was outlining his worries after being contacted by the Independent Light Dues Forum, an umbrella group campaigning for the abolition of the shipping tax known as “Light Dues”.

Jim Allister said, “Light dues are a tax on shipping entering UK ports which are used to fund lighthouses, beacons and other navigational aids: these charges are not applied in any other EU member-state, which obviously places the UK industry at a significant disadvantage. The rightly-held sense of injustice is further compounded by the fact that a significant proportion of the money raised through this scheme is being signed over to a foreign country for it to maintain navigational aids in its own waters.

In 1994-95 the Irish government received a subsidy from the UK of £4.8million from light dues, some of this money is used to maintain beacons etc. around Northern Ireland, but the vast bulk of it is not. The projected figure for 2004-05 is expected to be in the region of £7.2million, this is despite the fact that the government has publicly committed itself to re-negotiating the subsidy payments. Between 1994-95 and 2003-04 the UK government has handed over some £48.6 million, taken directly from the British shipping industry, to the Republic of Ireland government. This is unacceptable.

On 17th February, I tabled a question to the Commission regarding the legality and fairness of this practice and am awaiting a response. I have also been in communication with Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport – his department has again re-iterated its desire to see the re-negotiation of Light Dues payments to the Republic of Ireland. There can be no further delay – this anachronistic and anti-competitive system of subsidies needs to be brought to a halt”.