Hauliers at Dublin port have defended their plan for a work stoppage during the international Tall Ships race.
Mr John Guilfoyle, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), said yesterday that "unless we pick a date of some significance nothing happens".
The tall ships are expected to begin arriving in the port from next Tuesday after the voyage from Vigo, Spain, where the second and final leg of the international race begins today .
However the main event for Dublin is on Tuesday, August 25th, when the "parade of sail" takes place, with up to 100 international vessels beginning their formal departure from Dublin. That is one of the scheduled two-day stoppages by hauliers.
About 200 haulage companies are planning the stoppage because of payments and work conditions. They include major delays in loading and unloading and in processing paperwork and tolling charges.
Mr Guilfoyle stressed that the IRHA had no intention of blocking the port, and was not making any kind of veiled threat to do so, but hauliers were desperate for some resolution to the problems.
"Hauliers can wait for up to five hours to load and unload and that delay means they might make only two loads instead of four. That means a worker might bring home £150 instead of £300," he said.
Mr Bill Taylor, secretary of the tall ships committee, said the dispute was not of their making, but the hauliers appeared to be "trying to use us as a battering ram of some sort".
He said it was the people planning to visit the port to see the ships leaving who could be affected.
Ms Karen Gannon, assistant director of transport policy at IBEC, the employers' body, said many of the issues were being considered by a group commissioned by the Department of Public Enterprise to review the haulage industry.
