Hauliers to protest fuel prices

Road hauliers are to take to the streets of Dublin today in protest at rising fuel prices.

The Irish Road Haulage Association pledged to stage its demonstration outside the Dáil after it claimed its requests for meetings with Government ministers went unheeded.

A spokesman for the organisation said its protest, which will begin in Kildare Street and Molesworth Street at 10.30am, was designed to minimise disruption to the public.

“We are going to have 10 trucks as a stationary protest,” he said.

“We could easily have had 1,000 trucks in the city centre but that only puts people against you.”

The protest, who is supported by Dr James McDaid, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, will end in the afternoon.

Dr McDaid said the hauliers were the "unsung heroes" of the economy.

“I don’t think people understand the pivotal role they play,” he said.

“The food on the breakfast table, the newspapers people read and the cars they drive, they are all there because of road hauliers.”

The IRHA asked the Department of Finance to reduce the tax take from each litre of fuel being sold here, but criticised the department for not responding to its request.

Dr McDaid, who is currently running for the European elections in the North West constituency, said he had made representations to the Department of Finance on behalf of the hauliers.

“We have continuously backed them in their bid for a concession,” he said.

The hauliers’ protest will begin at 10.30am with a demonstration on Kildare Street and Molesworth Street. It is expected to last until mid afternoon.

IRHA President Eamonn Morrissey said the increasing fuel prices, which have topped €1 per litre of petrol in some areas, meant the Government was gathering even more taxes from motorists.

“The price of fuel has now reached crisis point and it is the view of the IRHA that both the oil companies and the Government are the principle benefactors in the present crisis,” he said.

He said transport operators would also use the protest to highlight a number of other issues that were affecting the industry such as the increasing number of planned toll roads and the problem of illegal haulage.

Mr Morrisey said hauliers were particularly incensed at Transport Minister Seamus Brennan’s recent announcement of regulatory measures for the taxi industry.

Hauliers had campaigned for similar measures for the last 20 years after dereglation of the transport industry led to widespread abuses within the industry by illegal operators.

“We have continually asked for the same measures for our own industry and we did not require the setting up of a government-backed quango like the Taxi Council to make the recommendation,” said Mr Morrisey.

The Department of Fincance was unavailable for comment.