Mr. Eugene Drennan:

There are lots of other goods and the cheap and cheerful have to come as well. We must be relevant here - mainly on the outbound but, to a degree, the cheap and cheerful go out with the loads. Cheap and cheerful means the volume products such as concrete, wood and timber for Coillte. All of these products do not have big margins. There is a big market for those goods but we need to hang on to that competitiveness. If those vehicles travel outward, it is very difficult to get them back in. We are experiencing big difficulties in getting the return load due to the volume of trade lost, the tipping of the balance because of all of the checks and balances and the slowing up of things.

Will it be a permanent feature? It will unless the State has a plan B to take the economic indicators quickly to bring in something for us. We are saying here today that we certainly need it. Other than that, this will remain permanent and flow that way. Steel from Wales should be coming into Rosslare. It can now flow freely as a product into Northern Ireland with no tariffs or quota and a different VAT regime for sale, and rightly so, under the agreement. Where are we going to shop for steel? The duty on alcohol matches excise in the UK.