Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is absolutely vital that these stakeholder meetings happen as soon as possible and that we get a net result, because what I am hearing is similar to what is being said here. The fact is that many companies in Britain that are exporting have not made the preparations that have been made here and we are all suffering, particularly hauliers.

We need something done about systems. I accept Mr. Harrahill said there are difficulties with just how far we can go with regard to a leeway period or whatever but there are definite difficulties. Groupage is a problem in the sense that the entire business model has probably changed for many hauliers. I would like Mr. Drennan to lay it out because we would be under much more pressure only for the fact that there has been significant stockpiling. That is the reason a reduced number of people are transferring. I am led to believe, however, that hauliers operate on small margins, within approximately 4%. Therefore, with the added costs regarding the systems, hold-ups and all these factors there are major issues. My worries are, first, that hauliers will go out of business and at a point in time when we fix all these systems, they will not have capacity to stay in operation. Haulage firms will not be there to pick up the slack when it is necessary. Could Mr. Drennan deal with that, please?