asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport if the proposals to increase international haulage permits by 40 per cent per annum over the next five years with the EC have been blocked by larger member states; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - International Haulage Permits.
23.
Blockage at the December 1987 Council of Transport Ministers of the 40 per cent increase in the European Community quota of international haulage authorisations was due largely to the insistence by some of the larger member states on linking progress in liberalisation of the international road haulage authorisation quota to harmonisation of lorry weights and dimensions and social regulations.
An existing EC Regulation provided for a 30 per cent increase in the 1985 quota and a 15 per cent increase in each of the subsequent four years to 1989. We received a 15 per cent increase for 1988 which brought our quota to 420 authorisations as compared with 88 in 1984.
The Council of Transport Ministers have before them a proposal for the liberalisation of international road haulage operations by 1 January 1993 which includes an annual increase of 40 per cent in the Community quota authorisations up to 1992; thereafter the quota system would be abolished and Irish hauliers who are qualified under EC Regulations to engage in international haulage operations would be entitled to an EC licence. When the Council failed to reach agreement on the 40 per cent increase in December last Ireland subsequently applied under a special procedure for an increase in our 1988 quota. It is expected that this request will be discussed at the forthcoming Council of Transport Ministers on 14 March 1988. I will, of course, be pressing for the 40 per cent increase at the Council. I took the opportunity of a recent visit to Dublin by the Transport Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, who currently hold the EC Presidency, to stress the importance Ireland attaches to this matter.
Ireland favours the removal of quantitative restrictions on international road haulage between member states, subject to qualitative controls.