Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support fully what Senator O'Neill said. I also support my colleague Senator Ó Domhnaill, who raised this matter on the Adjournment last week. As Senator O'Neill said, the HGV Road User Levy Act comes into effect on 1 April. This means lorries travelling from the Republic to Northern Ireland or to the United Kingdom will have to pay £10 per day, which is totally unacceptable. I agree with Senators O'Neill and Ó Domhnaill that to exempt a particular road or to say a seven-mile radius of the Border will be exempt is not good enough. This will have serious consequences for members of the Irish Road Haulage Association. It is already €5,200 cheaper to operate the same type of vehicle in the North than it is here. This levy will create further hardship for these people who are already struggling to make a living. I agree with my colleagues that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, must contact his counterpart in the Northern Ireland Assembly as a matter of urgency.

I am surprised by the deafening silence of Sinn Féin in this regard. We should fight at every opportunity to prevent this levy from being applied on this island and being forced on the hauliers of this country. The Six Counties, in the province from which I come, should be exempt from this levy and we should all fight hard to ensure that happens.