Vol. 393 No. 4
asked the Minister for Transport and Tourism if his attention has been drawn to the fact that at least 125,000 freight containers are carried northwards each year, mainly by Northern Ireland hauliers; and the plans he has to give hauliers from the Republic an equal opportunity to compete for this business.
44.
asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the reason 58 per cent of freight leaving this States goes through Northern Ireland; the reason only 27 per cent goes through Dublin and 15 per cent through ports in the southeast; and, in view of the relatively small amount of trade between this State and Scotland, his proposals to remedy the situation.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 44 together.
It has been recognised for some time that Irish industry, and particularly hauliers and exporters, are at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their Northern Ireland counterparts in relation to overall transport costs. One of the ways in which this is manifested is the loss of traffic to ports in Northern Ireland. This diversion of traffic is attributable to a number of interwoven factors which operate in favour of the Northern ports, including shipping costs, frequency and capacity of shipping services, port charges, lower costs of Northern Ireland hauliers and so on.
This problem has been addressed in the National Development Plan, which includes proposals for major EC-assisted investment in special sea and air freight services linking Ireland with Britain and the European mainland. A major feasibility study into these proposals will be commenced shortly. The study, which will be steered by a committee representative of the Departments of Tourism and Transport, the Marine and Finance and the European Commission, under the chairmanship of a senior officer of my Department, will have broad terms of reference. Apart from considering specific investment projects, it will examine the factors in the Irish transport sector which impose excessive costs on Irish exporters.
Recommendations arising from the feasibility study will be given careful consideration with a view to appropriate action being taken to improve Ireland's freight links with Britain and the Continent.
Is the Minister aware that it is the practice of certain operators to go as far south as Cork to collect goods, to export these via Northern Ireland at Larne or Warrenpoint and to deliver them in England as far south as London and to do so more profitably than bringing the goods across the Irish Sea via any port in the Republic? Would the Minister agree that transport and sea freight rates in the Republic, and specifically from Dublin, are twice what it costs to transport sea freight via Larne and other ports outside the Republic and that this is one of the main contributing factors?
I admit there are cost disadvantages here vis-á-vis Northern Ireland. Various studies, for example, the Department of Finance analyst report, the Chartered Institute of Transport report and so on state that although these figures are not totally reliable the cost disadvantage ranges from 11 per cent to 27 per cent. I am aware, as the Deputy has pointed out, that goods are transported from far south through Northern Ireland. That is a feature of the higher cost pertaining in the Republic — of which the Deputy will be aware — of excise duties, fuel taxes, insurance, port charges and so on.
Would the Minister agree that the cost of transporting freight across the Irish Sea from the Republic is up to twice that for a similar exercise from, say, Belfast docks and that this gives rise to a reasonable suspicion of a cartel in shipping prices from the Republic which is contributing to a major loss here of revenue, jobs and enterprise? Will he tell the House what plans he has to reduce the cost of commercial vehicles used by the Republic's road haulage carriers in order to allow them to compete with the Northern Ireland carriers, particularly coming up to 1992 when there is supposed to be more rationalisation in the whole area of tax, duties and motor insurance?
The Deputy will admit that there are many questions there, some of which are interesting and which I would like to reply to but obviously I cannot do so now. I would like to share an interesting statistic with the Deputy, namely, that 1,900 licences have been issued under the Road Transport Act in the domestic haulage area. Currently there are some 600 applications in my Department awaiting consideration. I was interested to find that there was no fall-off in the number of people who want to run road haulage businesses in the Republic. If the difficulties are as severe as they seem to be I am anxious to reconcile that with the increasing number of people who applied to my Department for licences. As part of the general taxation strategy which the Government are following and as has been pointed out, there are higher excise duties on our vehicles, a higher tax element on our fuel and our insurance charges are higher. All in all our freight people do extraordinarily well. I am concerned that something of the order of 26 per cent of exports from the Republic still go out through Northern Ireland. I want to have a very close look at that to see of we can get some of the business back and I would welcome the Deputy's suggestions in that area.
