Mr. Eoin Gavin:

Deputy McEntee asked us to name the roads we are focusing on in the North of Ireland. We want all roads in the North of Ireland to be exempt. The A5 and the Dundalk to Castleblayney road have been mentioned. One needs to travel on other roads to get onto those roads. We would be looking for all roads to be exempt as any other approach would not make practical sense.

Deputy McEntee also asked about the cost of leaving. We have come up with some quite scary figures with regard to the five issues. The cabotage issue is a significant one. A person based in Letterkenny who works for Donegal Creameries and has to go to the port of Derry every day to unload for the creamery can only do three loads before he has to go home. The cost of that is enormous. If person based in Dublin Port who wants to send trailers to Holyhead has to send a driver and a truck on the ferry as well, he will have to pay for the extra berth and the extra space on the ferry. The cost of that alone would be approximately €25,000 per annum, which is a massive cost. Our road tax structure is €4,000 more expensive. Our testing fees are more expensive by between €50 and €60 per vehicle. The overall saving per vehicle adds up to approximately €30,000. Each vehicle represents 3.8 jobs in this economy. I refer to those who fit tyres, those who work on the mechanic side, those involved in finance and leasing and the officials in the Road Safety Authority and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We have proven over the past 20 years that there are 3.8 jobs for every truck in Ireland. We would be talking about a big bleed in the economy.

We have representatives here from the Border areas, the north west, the north east and the south east, which are regions of very high unemployment - up to 20% in some areas. The biggest fleets in the country are in those areas. It is possible that those fleets will relocate outside this jurisdiction, in another economy altogether. The risk is not that they will move to Dublin or centralise. It is that this whole sector of the economy will decentralise. Given that transport is of great importance to our export-led economy, this could have significant costs at the end of the day.

Deputy McEntee also asked how we have gone about lobbying our people in the North of Ireland. We have a very close relationship with the hauliers there. We compete in the same business. There are 7,000 trucks in the North and 15,000 trucks in the South. There is a big transport industry up there. They do come south of the Border. Approximately 70% of their business is south of the Border. We have a good relationship with them. Initially, they were saying we should be paying something in the North because they pay tolls down here. They subsequently realised that the tolls apply to good quality motorway infrastructure, which was built to get people from A to B more quickly, whereas the roads in the North are not motorways. We still have to pay road tax on our national routes here.

Deputy Conlan alluded to the possibility of proceeding on an all-island basis. The hauliers in the North have moved closer to our position in that regard. They would be more likely to be in favour of working towards that if a common road tax structure were in place. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government needs to change our current road tax structure, which operates on the basis of unladen weight and dates back to 1956, immediately. We would be wasting our time by going to the Assembly and asking for co-operation because they would turn around and ask about the kind of road tax structures we have in place. They would laugh at us. It is important for the current structure to change immediately. We welcome the support that has been expressed by Deputy Conlan in his capacity as rapporteur on behalf of the Government at the British-Irish Assembly. As he attended the meeting we had with the Minister, Deputy Hogan, in November, he knows exactly where we stand. He has seen our figures. I strongly believe he will put his best foot forward in this regard.

The Chairman asked about the fuel rebate, which was most unwelcome. The recommendation that was made by this committee in its 2012 report definitely helped to bring about the decision that was made by the Minister, Deputy Noonan. It has separated the rogue operator from the legitimate operator. One needs to have one's road licensing in place and one's tax up to date. It has attracted a great deal of additional revenue into the Irish coffers. We have had two periods of pay-out. The third one kicked in yesterday. There is still a slow take-up with the IT system but we are working through it. The Revenue online service is a very good system when people get used to it. We are working through it.