Cabotage crisis for Northern Ireland
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• Hauliers in Northern Ireland will be eligible for a total of just 50 cabotage permits — Southern Ireland is to get nearly 600.
"It will have a very serious effect because we're talking about a country only a few miles up the road," says Eddie Sheridan, group trade officer for the Transport & General Workers' Union. The TGWU is pressing the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland to come up with clear answers on how permits will be allocated — and to redress the permit balance between North and South. "If a company in
Northern Ireland has substantial business in the UK or in Southern Ireland can it apply for further permits on that basis?" asks Sheridan. "Northern Ireland's 50 permits are part of the UK award of over 1,000. Southern Ireland has received its allocation as a separate member state of the EC. So 585 Southern Irish hauliers will be able to bid for business in Northern Ireland."
Fred Leonard, chairman of the Road Transport Association (Northern Ireland) has also slammed the permit share-out; "We have little hope of healthy competition in Europe when we cannot compete with the South," he says.
Owner-operators make up the majority of road transport firms in Southern Ireland; most large transport groups are based in Northern Ireland. El The TGWU has called off an anti-cabotage lobby of Parliament because of "organisational problems".