Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I accept what the Deputy is saying, that hauliers like everyone else in the economy are under increasing pressure. We mentioned that the number of hauliers has reduced and the amount of goods being carried has reduced over the past 12 to 18 months. The dip in the economy has hit hauliers hard . From the Department's point of view, we cannot intervene directly to support individual hauliers. We try to create conditions to help them as much as possible. The only positive note is that the statistics on licences issued over the past number of years showed a major fall in 2009 to 663, a fall of nearly 300.

See this speech in context