The Irish Road Haulage Industry (IRHA) has said that the closure of Fastway Couriers this morning, with the loss of hundreds of jobs, is a direct result of a Government policy that has focused on heaping taxes upon taxes on a haulage and transport industry that is close to collapse.<\/p>\n
IRHA President, Ger Hyland said that the Fastway closure is only the beginning and it won\u2019t be long before there are hundreds of haulage companies entering receivership leading to thousands of job losses, undelivered goods and a devastating impact on the Irish economy.<\/p>\n
Mr Hyland said that Irish rural hauliers are now owed thousands of euros because of the closure of Fastway Couriers, which will be almost impossible to recoup.<\/p>\n
He described the situations as a body blow to an industry that is already on its knees and said this is the start of a domino effect of closures in the transport industry.<\/p>\n
Mr Hyland criticised government policy and party leaders for ignoring the pleas of the haulage industry in last month\u2019s budget and said the chickens are now coming home to roost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government gave us nothing in last month\u2019s budget. We sat down with party leaders and explained what would happen if we did not get support. So this government cannot say they were not warned about what happened today with Fastway Couriers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment policy is to continue to impose higher fuel costs, ignore supports to help us transition to green HVO fuels, impose more taxes and crippling regulations on a transport industry that cannot cope.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe are the wheels that make the Irish economy turn but those wheels are coming off now. I hope that when the media are interviewing politicians about the hundreds of job losses at Fastway and the knock on impact on rural Ireland, they will ask the government why they didn\u2019t listen to the haulage industry who warned of impending closures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hyland pointed out that the Fastway courier closure will have an enormous impact on Ireland\u2019s rural economy where small businesses pay for packages to be delivered to customers in advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is only the beginning of the chaos. More haulage and transport companies will be forced out of business by the policies of this government. At this point in time, there are any number of small businesses that have paid for packages that are sitting in depots. Will customers get their products that they paid for? Will hauliers get paid for the work they have done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hyland called on the government to provide an immediate support package to the transport and haulage industry to try and stave off the worst of the impending closures.<\/p>\n
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