This article is from page 31 of the 2008-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
THE Clare branch of the Irish Road Haulage Association has criticised IBEC Mid West’s stance on the spi- raling cost of energy, describing it as “living the dream of a wishful tomorrow”.
Last week the IBEC Director for the Mid West, Chris O’Donovan, called for a number of actions to be taken to alleviate pressure on businesses due to the rising cost of energy.
These included fuel diversification, fast-tracking the Corrib Gas project,
supports for energy efficiency and in- creasing market competition.
However, the Clare Branch of the Irish Road Haulage Association has criticised these initiatives as too long-sighted, claiming that the haulage sector will be annihilated long before the impact of any of the changes are felt.
“The crisis at the moment is far more imminent than living the dream of a wishful tomorrow. This is so ur- gent it is unbelievable. We have felt the downturn in consumer spending three or four months ago. Coupled
with this downturn was an increased price in transporting the products to the customers. This is going to hit shops heavily now and after the summer. The hauliers are at the front door of this,” said Eugene Brennan of Spa Transport Ltd in Ennis and the Irish Road Haulage Association.
“I think IBEC needs to address this in a more relevant way. If we can ad- dress this then we can have a much more sustainable service. If they want to wait until more transport compa- nies go out of business and transport gets really expensive then we will
have another peak and trough situa- tion. IBEC should come and meet us and have relevant discussions on how we can fix this.”
According to the Irish Road Haul- age Association many Clare haulage companies are currently operating at a loss and face closure in the coming nee) eLdSLe
“Tt’s cruel to the world. They are still calling it a recession but I don’t know when they are going to start calling it a depression. It’s a vicious cycle. The downturn in the building industry came at the same time as
the huge increase in oil. We have far too many trucks there for the busi- ness. Customers either don’t want to or are not in a position to pay any- thing extra towards the cost of fuel,” continued Mr Brennan.
‘The cost of fuel is a definite – we can’t get away from it. But I think that it might take a few more hauliers to go out of business before they get the message.
Hauliers are doing jobs now with no profit margin or for a loss – they are going jobs just to keep a cash flow ticking over.”