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IRHA calls for emergency meeting with Minister O’Keeffe
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IRHA calls for emergency meeting with Minister O’Keeffe
Published on 7 July 2010
The Irish Road Hauliers Association has called on Batt O’Keeffe the Enterprise Minister for an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis confronting the transport industry.
The IRHA claim that fuel suppliers are taking advantage of the current climate and are ‘profiteering’ resulting in some hauliers going out of business. The IRHA has called for the emergency meeting claiming that fuel suppliers have hijacked the Government’s Bio-fuels Obligation Scheme to increase prices which will cripple hauliers by as much as €50,000 per annum. The Government scheme which was introduced on 1 July requires companies supplying fuel on the Irish market to have a mix of four per cent bio-fuel in their transport fuel. Since the introduction of the scheme the IRHA claims that suppliers have passed on the cost of implementing the scheme to the user thus effectively increasing the price of fuel.
“The Government has scored a spectacular own goal and hauliers throughout the country are paying the price,” said Mr. Vincent Caulfield, President of the Irish Road Haulage Association.
“The scheme has failed to reduce fuel costs and the Government has failed to respond to the reality that fuel suppliers have been given a free hand to set whatever price they choose,” he added.
“Increases already vary between .8 cent and 1.12 cent per litre. A price increase of 1.4 cent per litre adds €50,000 to the operating costs of a haulier with 40 trucks and that cost is simply not recoupable given all of the economic challenges currently facing hauliers,” said Mr. Caulfield.
The IRHA are seeking a review of the scheme in light of its impact on the transport industry and are also calling for an investigation of fuel suppliers over their varied price increases.
“The Government has sat idly by as haulage businesses struggle to respond to increased operating costs. We have taken enough. It is time the Government took action to protect jobs rather than introducing a succession of policies which undermine the survival of haulage businesses,” Mr Caulfield concluded.
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