Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The ten-year haulage strategy is focusing on a number of issues. Reducing emissions in the sector is one issue. The other issues include how we are dealing with the driver shortage and how to make the profession more attractive. There has been the first phase of a public consultation, with further consultation on the draft strategy next year. Between Covid, Brexit and other challenges facing the industry, this is a really good time to get the feedback from the industry on how we can support the sector and the supply chain. We have seen how reliant and flexible it was through the Brexit transition. Our supply chain was robust. They were flexible, as they told us they would be. We were all fearful about the transition on 1 January but the sector has really done us proud. We need to ensure we support it in every way possible. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and I met representatives of the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, last week to discuss many of these issues.

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