John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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246. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the current situation between Ireland and the UK and Europe relating to Irish hauliers and the problems they are encountering with the authorities when trying to comply with cabotage which is damaging and increasing costs to Irish exporters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47556/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Provisions in relation to road haulage cabotage are set out in EU Regulation 1072 of 2009, which came into effect on 14 May 2010.  Cabotage refers to haulage for hire or reward within a host Member State carried out on a temporary basis by a non-resident operator.  The EU Regulation defines the specific limitations of cabotage, that is, when goods carried in the course of an inbound international journey have been delivered, the haulier may with the same vehicle carry out up to 3 cabotage operations within 7 days, after which he must exit the host Member State.  Cabotage enforcement is a matter for the authorities in each Member State.    

I can appreciate that by introducing a change to previous cabotage provisions that were less prescriptive EU Regulation 1072 of 2009 has affected opportunities for cabotage and in particular there have been concerns raised about the enforcement of these regulation in the United Kingdom. In that regard I have repeatedly raised the concerns of Irish hauliers with my British counterparts, unfortunately to limited effect to date.

It should be emphasised that the cabotage provisions do not in any way affect an Irish operator’s entitlement to carry goods between Member States – international haulage remains fully liberalised, and represents the vast bulk of haulage work carried out abroad by Irish hauliers.

I note that in its White Paper on Road Transport 2011 to 2020 the European Commission intends to review current provisions on cabotage.  I support the idea of an open market for haulage operations and would hope that cabotage can be further liberalised.