Road toll prices prompt hauliers to threaten protest

Hauliers are threatening to embark on a series of nationwide protests, in response to price rises in road tolls over the past two years.

Delegates at the annual Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) conference which opened in Bunratty, Co Clare, yesterday, are expected to vote on a motion calling for the countrywide protests.

IRHA president, Mr Eamon Morrissey, said yesterday that continuing speculation about more road tolls around the country is angering members.

"Our industry just can't absorb these costs that we're not prepared to accept anymore," he said.

There are already three routes tolled on the east coast. The National Roads Authority (NRA) recently unveiled a draft scheme for a road toll in the west of Ireland for drivers using the proposed €100 million tunnel under the River Shannon in Limerick.

Mr Morrissey said hauliers are being taxed out of existence and road tolls place an added cost on an industry that is not profitable.

There is terrible frustration and disappointment in the industry over the lack of action by the Department of Transport in safeguarding the industry from the threat from illegal haulage and rising costs, he added.

"Last year, delegates were promised a wide range of initiatives by Minister for State Jim McDaid, none of which have been followed through on, despite intense lobbying of the Government by industry," he said.

"Because of the Government's inaction, the black economy and unlicensed hauliers are flourishing. We were promised a traffic corps, and that a system of checks would be put in place for unlicensed trucks, and neither of those initiatives have taken place."

"This country runs on the wheels of its trucks and yet we are supposed to continue running businesses that are barely profitable, while the Government does absolutely nothing to protect us from those operating illegally in the industry."