Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's reply is disappointing. I know that efforts are being made. This charge is totally nonsensical. It was introduced on 1 April, which is April fools' day. I am personal friends with many hauliers, some of whom started off with the ass and box, a horse and car or a small Thames truck. A man in his 70s, Johnny Slattery, who is based in my own area outside Tipperary town, has expanded his business and now employs 90 people. People like him are frustrated because all they want to do is work, create and generate business, employ people and comply with all the regulations. These outstanding companies, which provide employment and pay huge taxes, are having to put up with this issue. As I said earlier, it is like being blindfolded or having a restrictor put on the engine that does not allow the truck to travel at more than 20 mph. It is the same thing. We just cannot compete. I know that younger men with younger families will relocate. Some of them have done so already. In England and some other European countries, one can buy one's tax for the day, pay for the lorry and do a day's work. In this country, one has to pay for 12 months. It is totally nonsensical. I have to say that the lunatics are running the asylum on this one.

We have derogations and so on from certain European charters. I am sick to the teeth of European charters because they are useless. The very same thing is happening with regard to the introduction of calendar farming for slurry spreading. They can spread it beside a railing in Northern Ireland, but we cannot spread it in the South. It is total and patent nonsense. I found out recently that successive Irish Governments, the IFA and others, have not even looked for a derogation on that. We are great at implementing European directives. We are even better at putting directives on top of them and adding more to them to keep all our mandarins in the Departments busy. It is time some of these mandarins were sent out on the road. They should go out to the haulage companies to see how hard it is for them to make a living while paying for diesel and maintenance, the wages, the VAT, the PRSI and the insurance. They are barely existing as they try to survive this dark recession.

It is time we took more robust action to defend our ratepayers and business people instead of smothering and choking them with European directives, fuel levies, carbon taxes and bureaucracy. It is happening across the board. It is patent nonsense and we are not fit to be here if we cannot change it.

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