Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste's last point about the extra paperwork is something I intended raising with him. Yesterday, I met representatives of the Irish Road Haulage Association. Small hauliers have significant concerns. Citizens will probably be surprised to learn that the average size of a company fleet in Ireland is four trucks. The bigger hauliers will have the capacity to get their paperwork ready. They know what they need to do. However, significant disruption could arise because small hauliers will arrive at ports without having their paperwork ready and may be turned away.

There is a body of work to be done because that will effectively mean empty spaces on our supermarket shelves for the weeks following the initial emergency situation.

If we want to reach out to the small haulier, the level of engagement is not at the level it needs to be at, and it needs to be increased in the coming weeks.

On the issue around the use of the landbridge, I know some work has been done around direct access so trucks can go straight from Ireland to mainland Europe and bypass the UK altogether. The difficulty is the difference in time. It currently takes 20 hours to go straight through the landbridge as opposed to 40 hours to go direct, according to figures from the Irish Maritime Development Office. I appreciate the Tánaiste said thestatus quowill not be maintained in any case and that the 20 hours is likely to increase. However, this poses a significant problem for perishable goods, in particular those that have a shorter shelf life, which may lose value if they have an extra day's travel time. We need a solution to that so we can help that industry.

My final question concerns the issue of getting off at Calais. A number of months ago, we discussed the possibility of Irish trucks having a separate lane by which to exit to try to alleviate some of the pinch points in Calais and to try to claw back a bit of time. Will the Tánaiste update the House as to whether progress has been made in that regard?

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