Ms Verona Murphy:

We are not sure how many would be Irish operators that have solely left the Irish market or are dual operators. We cannot collate the data because they are not all members of the IRHA. However, from a perusal of the foreign registered vehicles on the roads, we would have a fair idea of who the Irish operators are. We estimate that 30% of Irish operators are now based abroad. I am not sure how many vehicles are involved but what we do know is that just one vehicle represents €250,000 to the Irish market.