Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I very much welcome the Irish Road Haulage Association here today. I appreciate their opening statement, which was very thorough.

When I read their opening statement, it brought home to me the challenges that they is facing, that they are at the coalface of a changing and turbulent world, that they have such a pivotal role in the unsustainable global supply chains that are impacting households on a daily basis and that they are certainly doing their best to maintain those supply chains even though they are facing a skills shortage and they do not seem to have stability in sight when it comes to that. Obviously, the geopolitical circumstances that we are already seeing are affecting trade. There is the fuel pricing and then, of course, the demands to innovate and decarbonise in the transport sector, all of which are important and we cannot hold back on. I fully recognise now, from their opening statement, just how challenging their work is.

My main interest is the all-island economy. I read what they said about the additional fees that they face. Are there any fees in reverse? They say that there are fees that they face by travelling north and if they do not pay those that they could get a fine and that there is not a reciprocal fee coming south, but are there other fees that drivers face in the North coming south that they do not mention here?