The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has said that new fuel taxes and toll increases now mean Irish drivers are paying the highest diesel rates in the EU, as a Cork truck driver said the rising costs \u201ccould close businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n
A series of new fuel taxes and toll charges kicked in on January 1, and IRHA president Ger Hyland said: \u201cHaulage companies are being pushed to the brink, with some already forced out of business, as fuel taxes, increased tolls, new port charges and carbon taxes rise relentlessly.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat is also driving the cost of potatoes, milk, bread and other supermarket staples that are delivered in the back of a truck.\u201d He added that increasing taxes \u201cdisproportionately impacts on rural Ireland\u201d, and said that the transport sector, \u201cunderpins every part of the economy\u201d, so loading extra costs onto it damages the entire Irish economy.<\/p>\n
Car drivers are now paying approximately \u20ac5 more to fill a tank of fuel than this time last year, and \u20ac19 more than five years ago following the latest hikes, on top of increased toll charges for all drivers, the IRHA said, adding that some hauliers are already paying up to \u20ac250,000 a year in tolls alone.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the IRHA said it \u201cabsolutely accepts that climate change is real and must be addressed. However, a just transition is essential. One industry \u2014 transport \u2014 cannot be made responsible for carrying the burden of all climate change measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cork truck driver Kenneth Collins, who is also a Sinn F\u00e9in councillor for the north west ward, told The Echo: \u201cFrom the ordinary person in a car to hauliers, these fuel hikes are going to have an impact.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a knock-on effect \u2013 if you\u2019re a person driving a truck for a company, someone has to pay the extra money, and sadly it\u2019s almost always the consumer.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
“Ireland is an island nation \u2014 we would be in trouble if the hauliers went on strike, but between the cost of fuel and tolls it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has said that new fuel taxes and toll increases now mean Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,4257,79,61,60,2738],"class_list":["post-238081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cork-business","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}