Mr. Eugene Drennan:

It is very expensive. This is the first day we have asked for this. Regarding easements, letters have been sent to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Taoiseach, Maroš Šefovi and Ursula von der Leyen. We asked that anything of UK or EU origin or a composite of both would be accepted if we agree and be freely allowed in here as long as we do not repopulate it into the land mass of the EU. That is our original trading. They are the goods we have always dealt in. The quality and acceptance of what they are, what they are made of and who manufactured them is well known. They are household names. We need something like that in plan B if we go to it.

Regarding not being too dependent on foreign labour, we are not. We have tried three regimes. We have three strands to how we approach it. We are trying to keep our existing drivers and conditions as best we can. We have tried to bring in drivers from their traditional background, namely, farming and tractor usage. Paul Jackman from our management team has put tremendous effort into the ETBs to set up a traineeship and to have this seen as a type of college course because younger people today and their mothers in particular want their children to go to a college so we have gone down that route in training them. We have held lots of hands and have tried to progress but it is tough going. Take up is not what we would like but we have tried that. We would much prefer Irish people to come to the fore because of our area, language and ease of movement but it is not there. This is why we use a two-pronged approach. One is we go through all the visa applications and try to get these inter-governmental connectivities but it is not happening. We have been at this for five years. We have no Ukrainian drivers who are on the road yet. They are here and we have appealed for them. The countries that have agreements with us do not suffice and are not suitable for the most part because they are wealthy economies for the most part.

As I said, the ability to speak English and the issue of easements would help. We need to teach people English and ensure the education and training boards have enough personnel to keep the courses going and allowance is made for a reasonable number of Irish people to attend the same courses and training so that they are put through. Colleges have the problem of whether to run a course and whether and when they will have people. They then have to manage their employment regimes to have people to teach them. The best we have seen is the Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board because of the influx of trucks and training up there. Some Sligo people come over and some go to Sligo. It is very proactive in the field in trying to encourage people. It is a hard battle to encourage people into it, however.

Supports and traffic coming into different ports was referenced. Would it help and be more efficient or hold the thing up? No. What would help immensely is to try to change the times of the ferries coming and going to Ireland. For the most part, they all leave and arrive in Dublin at one time. Rosslare Europort some years ago changed its sailing times and it has led to great efficiencies. The port is not blocked up with two ferries at one time. There is a choice of times. Ireland has enough connectivity with ferries coming and going to have a ferry leaving England every two hours. If we were amending it, the choice for us would be around which port we go to to suit tachograph rules and efficiencies. For tourism, however, which is not in our remit today, it would mean that English people could come here in daylight hours at a reasonable time and not be stuck in a port with children very early in the morning or in the middle of the night. That does not lead to a nice fit. It would be great. We are not seeking to tear up the rule book or change it. We have three of the shorter sea ferries to Holyhead leaving Dublin Port between approximately 8.45 a.m. and 9 a.m. One should leave at about 6.30 a.m., or whatever arrangement we come to, and the next one should leave at 8 a.m. or 8.30 a.m. That is not a big gap but the spin-off from merging that to suit the Rosslare ferries throughout the day, with a little bit of separation on the choice and throughput, would be that the service line to Ireland would improve immensely.