Mr. Eoin Gavin:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for giving us the opportunity to appear before the committee this morning.

The Irish road haulage industry is under severe threat from both our near neighbours and our European counterparts. We have highlighted five issues to explain why Irish hauliers will be registering abroad. A total of 10% of our fleet is already gone. As of midnight last Monday, the UK introduced the road tax levy of £10 on the roads of Northern Ireland and the UK. That has probably been the catalyst for this meeting. However, other issues have also arisen in the last three or four years which have resulted in 10% of the fleet going, with probably another 70% to follow. These are vehicles that will no longer be registered or taxed in the Republic of Ireland. They are businesses that will no longer be part of the local economy.

The first of the five issues is the interpretation over the last four or five years of Republic of Ireland unaccompanied trailers that cross the Irish Sea into mainland Britain, that is, the interpretation of the UK authorities of how those trailers should be handled and the licensing arrangements for them. There is also the interpretation of Republic of Ireland traffic in and out of Northern Ireland across the Border on a daily basis and how the Northern authorities have interpreted Republic of Ireland vehicles.

The second issue is the lorry road user levy that was introduced on the roads of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1 April.

The third issue is the commercial vehicle road tax in Ireland, for example, the cost of taxing an articulated truck in Dundalk versus the cost of taxing the same vehicle in Newry and how we compare with our European counterparts.

The fourth issue is the Road Safety Authority and commercial vehicle testing. New changes in commercial vehicle testing have left us approximately €50 or €60 more expensive than our United Kingdom counterparts. It is also a more cumbersome way of testing vehicles, trucks and trailers.

The fifth is the National Employment Rights Agency and its refusal to recognise the tachograph in a vehicle as means of recording the times of drivers on a weekly basis. The method is recognised across Europe and Ireland is the only part of Europe that does not recognise the tachograph, either digitally or analogue, as a recording mechanism.

My colleagues, Mr. Eugene Drennan and Mr. Richard Nolan, will explain in detail the road taxation issues, the cabotage issues, the NERA matter and the vehicle testing issue. We would welcome questions from the committee. Some of the issues are quite complex. The basis of our presentation is that it is now uncompetitive to run a truck south of the Border in Ireland. It costs in the region of €30,000 per annum more to run an articulated truck when one is based in County Clare as opposed to Manchester, which means the business is unsustainable. We have lost 10% of the industry and we will lose 70% more between now and next January if serious action is not taken.