I welcome the opportunity to address the House on supports for hauliers and the wider supply chain sector. Global instability from the Middle East conflict continues to affect international markets. We have seen sharp increases in oil and fuel prices and households and businesses are under sustained pressure, and this has all been well debated in this House. I welcome the Government fuel support scheme announced yesterday. I acknowledge in the House today the work of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Ministers, Deputies O'Brien, Heydon, Canney and Calleary, who is responsible for the islands. I wish to acknowledge all the work they have done to come up with this package that we have. The measures announced will provide much-needed relief to those most exposed to rising costs, the haulage sector in particular, which is important in my own constituency of Laois. According to the CSO figures, there were 127 licensed hauliers operating in County Laois in 2022. Figures for own-account operators were not available but, as everyone will know, there are many in each of our counties. In my constituency in Laois, the haulage sector covers construction, agriculture and food haulage, timber transport and the essential distribution networks that keep our shops, factories and communities supplied. As costs rise for hauliers, the impact is felt beyond the industry, triggering knock-on price increases across the economy and adding to the nationwide cost pressures. Supports for the sector are not only welcome but are critical at this stage. Hauliers have faced a series of cost pressures from increases in vehicle prices, repairs and maintenance. Often, these costs are forgotten when it comes to a crisis like the one we have at the moment, such as CVRT testing and insurance premiums, toll charges and, most recently, a rise in the cost of diesel. These pressures have eroded margins and placed a huge strain on operators, many of whom are small, family-run businesses. Under the EU mobility package, further challenges are on the horizon. In 2026, a new version of smart tachographs must be retrofitted to light commercial vehicles. All eligible non-European nationals travelling to or transiting through the UK also require electronic travel authorisation. Hauliers who travel to the North of Ireland have to pay a heavy goods vehicle, HGV, levy when crossing the Border. Each of these measures carries a cost, and together they are a significant burden on a sector already under pressure. Our hauliers are the backbone of Ireland's supply chains day in, day out. They and their staff work long hours to keep the goods moving, maintain employment and support economic life in every county. The reason these people were on the streets of Ireland was because of the pressures - not because they wanted to do it, but because they were forced. A lot of them were in fear. With the rising cost of diesel, people I know did not know what their future was. A lot of these people, including fellow agricultural contractors, have a lifelong agreement, if you like - or a custom, whichever you like to say - with all of their clients, where they usually get paid maybe once or twice a year. Each year, these people would be in a position to carry that cost but the fear of the increasing price of diesel was running through their very veins, with them not knowing what was going to happen. These people are passionate about doing the job they do and giving the service they give to people. For maybe two or three generations, they have been going in to do work on the same agricultural land for families. They found themselves in a very perilous situation. They did not know what the price of diesel was going to be day by day, not to talk about week by week. For those people, I am delighted that, at least, we are spending €750 million for them. A Cheann Comhairle, in a crisis situation, it does not cost anything to talk to people. You must talk to people. I talk to people every day. For every public representative, it is part of the core of their job. It comes from their heart, like mine, to talk to people in crisis. Since I was 19 years of age when I became a public representative, I have been talking to people who, in their situation on that day, were facing their biggest crisis. That is why we, as public representatives, always have to put out a hand of friendship to people. Lessons can be learned from what happened and I believe in my heart that the sooner you talk, the sooner you get resolutions. I hope we have learned from that. I am encouraged by the words that have come from the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, regarding renewables. I feel it is something we have to look at for every household in this country. It is something we can do. I do not know, no more than anybody else in this House today, what is down the road for us as regards what we witnessed in the past couple of weeks and months. We saw what happened in Ukraine. Now we have the oil crisis. We do not know what is facing us for the winter. We do not know what is going to happen in the next two or three years. However, one thing we can do in this country is invest in renewables. It would be a great incentive for everybody. It would take the burden, hardship and fear out of people if they could know that they would be in a position to reduce their dependence on petrol, oil or whatever. That is something we need to address and that we need to invest in immediately. Members can see for themselves the rewards that could be reaped from this. I can remember the shortage in petrol and the big queues in my own town of Portlaoise when I was a very young person, especially down at Conroy's garage. Now, it is an ongoing situation. People do not know from day to day. I still have people who say to me that they wonder what is going to happen when the real silage season cuts in in the next week or fortnight. There is still a fear there. People do not know whether it is going to cost €200 or zero to €200 to put silage in a pit per acre. They do not know what it is going to cost as regards wrapping. We are not only talking about diesel, but plastic. For everything that is associated, all costs are going up. I spoke to a person the other day who hauls cattle. In my opinion, probably the hardest job that anybody does on the road is hauling cattle. There are thousands of cattle hauled through this country on a daily basis. There is one question I need to have answered, and it is to ensure that cattle hauliers are included in this package. I also wish to ask for the sole trader drawing cattle to be included in the package. I presume they are but it is not there in black and white, and when I do not see something in black and white, I always get concerned. I would like that question to be answered here today. Going forward, it is important, especially for our young farmers, that we try to persuade them that there is a good living to be got and it is a good job you can do. When we see ups and downs like this, I meet young farmers out there who have done their yearly calculations - or two- or three-year ones, when they are borrowing money to invest in their farms - and, all of a sudden, you now have milk gone down to 37 cent per litre and costs are going up on the other side that they have no control over. It is very difficult. It is very important, even when we do small steps like giving enough money forward for the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, grants, to put panels on any property available for them. That is a no-brainer in this day and age. Investing that small amount of money is something that the Government will reap bucketfuls back from.

Sentiment score: 0.03