William Aird: Urgent plea for hauliers amid fuel crisis

Sean Comhairle, I welcome the opportunity to address the House in support for hauliers and the wider supply chain sector. Global instability from the Middle East conflict continues to affect international markets. We have seen sharp increases in island fuel prices. Households and businesses are under sustained pressure. This has all been well debated in this House. I welcome the Government Fuel Support Scheme announced yesterday. I want to acknowledge here before the House today the work of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, Ministers O'Brien, Ministers Hayden, Ministers Canning and Ministers Darragh Cullery, who is responsible for the islands. I want to acknowledge all the work that they have done to come up with this package that we have. The measures that were announced will provide much needed relief to those most exposed to rising costs. The haulage sector in particular, important in my own constituency of Leash. According to the CSO figures, there were 127 licensed hauliers operating in County Leash in 2022. Figures for own account operators were not available. But as you all know, there are many, many in each of our counties. In my constituency in Leash, the haulage sector covers construction, agriculture and food haulage, timber transport and the essential distribution networks that keep our shops, factories and communities supplied. As costs rise for hauliers, the impact is felt beyond the industry, triggering knock-on price increases across the economy and adding to the nationwide cost pressures. Costs for the sector are not only welcome, but are critical at this stage. Hauliers have faced a series of cost pressures, from increases in vehicle prices, repairs and maintenance. Often these costs are forgotten when it comes to a crisis like the one we have at the moment. CVRT testing and insurance premiums, toll charges and most recently, the rise in the cost of diesel. These pressures have eroded margins and placed a huge strain on operators, many of whom are small family-run businesses. Under the EU Mobility Package, further challenges are on the horizon. In 2026, new version Star Tactographs must be retrofitted to light commercial vehicles. Also, all eligible non-European nationals travelling to or transiting through the UK require electronic travel authorisation. Hauliers who travel to the north of Ireland have to pay a HGV levy when crossing the border. Each of these measures carry a cost, and together they are a significant burden on a sector already under pressure. Local Hauliers are the backbone of Ireland's supply chains, day in, day out. They and their staff work long hours to keep the goods moving, to maintain employment and to support economic life in every county. The reason that these people were on the streets of Ireland was because of the pressures. Not because they wanted to do that, but because they were forced. A lot of them in fear, people that I know, with the rising costs of diesel, not knowing what the future for them was. A lot of these people, including fellow agricultural contractors, have a lifelong agreement, if you like, or it's a custom, whichever you like to say, with all their clients, where usually they get paid maybe once a year or maybe twice a year. These people, each year, would be in a position to be able to carry that cost. But the fear of the increasing prices of diesel was running through their very veins, not knowing what was going to happen. These are passionate people about doing the job that they do, about giving the service that they give to people. Maybe down for two or three generations going in to do work on the same agricultural land for families. They found themselves in a very, very perilous situation that not knowing what the price of diesel was going to be day by day, not to talk about week by week. And I just want to say that for those people, I'm delighted that at least we're spending 750 million for them. But I do believe, Councillor, that in a crisis situation, and it doesn't cost anything to talk to people, you must talk to people. I talk to people every day, every public representative. It's part of the core of their job. It comes from their heart, like mine, to talk to people in crisis. Since I was 19 years of age, I became a public representative. I am talking to people that in their situation on that day, that's the biggest crisis that they face. And that's why we as public representatives always have to put out our hand of friendship to people. I think lessons can be learned from what happened. And I do believe in my heart that the sooner that you talk, the sooner that you get resolutions. And I hope that we have learned from that. And I also would like to say that I am encouraged with the words that have come from the Tanisha plus the Minister, Dara O'Brien, as regards renewables. I honestly feel that it's something that we have to really look at for each and every household in this country. It's something that we can do. Because I don't know, nor more than anybody else in this house knows today, what is down the road for us as regards what we witnessed in the last couple of weeks and couple of months. Like we saw what happened in European Union. Now we had the oil crisis. We don't know what's facing us for the winter. We don't know what's going to happen in the next two or three years. But I think there's one thing that we can do in this country, and that's invest in renewables. It would be a great incentive for everybody. It would take the burden. It would take the hardship. It would take the fear out of people. If they could know that they would be in a position to reduce their dependence on electricity and oil and whatever. I think that that is something that we need to address immediately. We need to invest it immediately. And I think that you can see yourself the rewards that could be reaped from this. I can remember when I was a very young person, the shortage in petrol and the big queues in my own town in Portlaoise, especially out of Conry's Garage. I can remember that. But now it's an ongoing situation. People don't know from day to day. I still have people that say to me, I wonder what's going to happen when the real silage season cuts in in the next week or fortnight. People are still, there's a fear there. People don't know whether it's going to cost 200 euros or not 200 euros to put silage in a pit per acre. They don't know what it's going to cost as regards wrapping, because we're not talking here only about diesel. We're talking about plastic, you know, and everything that's associated, all costs are going up. And like, as I spoke to a person the other day, that hauls cattle, probably the hardest job in my opinion, that anybody does in the road is hauling cattle. And there's thousands and thousands of cattle hauled through this country on a daily basis. And that's one question I need to be answered. And that is to ensure that the hauliers, the cattle hauliers, are included in this package. And I want to also say in my question now to you, Councillor, that the sole trader drawing cattle that he's included in the package, it's just, I presume he is, but it's not there in black and white. And when I don't see something in black and white, I always get concerned. So I'd like that question to be posed here today. And I also would just like to say that, you know, going forward, it's important from a point of view for especially our young farmers in this country, to try, that we try and persuade those that there is, you know, a good living to be got, that it's a good job that you can do. But like, when we see ups and downs like this, that when I meet young farmers out there that have done their yearly calculations, and all of a sudden then, or a two year one, a three year one, when you're borrowing money to invest in your farm, that you now have milk gone down to 37 cent a litre. And from that point of view, and all the costs going up on the other side, that they have no control over. It's very, very difficult. And could I ask again, I think it's very important that, you know, even when we do small steps and small steps, by giving enough money forward for the TAMS grants, for to put panels on any property that's available for them, I think that's a no brainer in this day and age. Is there something that the government will reap, you know, in bucketfuls back, from investing that small amount of money? And thank you. Thank you.