Truckers from Donegal, who are part of a delegation set up to oppose the inclusion of Northern Ireland in the UK’s proposed HGV Road User Levy, will travel to Northern Ireland tomorrow to make their voices heard.
The delegation will convene at Parliament Buildings, and is due to meet various MLAs, and are due before the Committee for the Environment.
The UK road user charge levy is proposed to be introduced in April 2014; the charge requires all non-UK registered HGV vehicles to pay a charge when entering UK territory – including Northern Ireland.
The proposed charge can be paid as a daily levy of £10, or as an annual sum of £1,000, depending on the haulage operator’s preference.
The haulage industry feel the introduction of the charge will have major repercussions for Irish hauliers operating in the six counties and transiting through them. Furthermore, the levy is seen as being detrimental to the Northern Irish economy, as the charge will make Northern Irish Ports unattractive to hauliers operating from the Republic.
Not only will the charge increase the price of goods entering Northern Ireland, but many feel the introduction of this levy will create a fiscal border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, something which is viewed as contradicting the sentiments of the Good Friday Agreement as well as being harmful to the increase in cross-border co-operation of recent years.
Donegal Hauliers in particular, feel that this charge will have an adverse effect on their livelihoods, on the haulage industry, and on industry as a whole.
In recent days, the introduction of this new levy has been the subject of much media coverage; Ministers in Stormont, as well as Political figures in both the Seanad and Dáil Éireann, have condemned the impending charge.
It has been reported that the Minister for Transport in Dublin, Leo Varadkar TD, last week met with his British Counterpart to discuss the charge, where the issue of an exemption for Northern Ireland was raised.
The delegation will be comprised of various political representatives from North and South, as well as hauliers and business owners from both jurisdictions.
The Group ‘Action Against Lorry Road User Charge’ are on Facebook, where they have attracted nearly one thousand likes in only a few days, and it’s on their Facebook page that people can sign their online petition. The petition will then be presented to politicians both in Stormont and in Leinster House.
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