The Irish Road Haulage Industry (IRHA) has said that the closure of Fastway Couriers this morning, with the loss of hundreds of jobs, is a direct result of a Government policy that has focused on heaping taxes upon taxes on a haulage and transport industry that is close to collapse.
IRHA President, Ger Hyland said that the Fastway closure is only the beginning and it won’t be long before there are hundreds of haulage companies entering receivership leading to thousands of job losses, undelivered goods and a devastating impact on the Irish economy.
Mr Hyland said that Irish rural hauliers are now owed thousands of euros because of the closure of Fastway Couriers, which will be almost impossible to recoup.
He described the situations as a body blow to an industry that is already on its knees and said this is the start of a domino effect of closures in the transport industry.
Mr Hyland criticised government policy and party leaders for ignoring the pleas of the haulage industry in last month’s budget and said the chickens are now coming home to roost.
“This government gave us nothing in last month’s budget. We sat down with party leaders and explained what would happen if we did not get support. So this government cannot say they were not warned about what happened today with Fastway Couriers.”
“Government policy is to continue to impose higher fuel costs, ignore supports to help us transition to green HVO fuels, impose more taxes and crippling regulations on a transport industry that cannot cope.”
He added: “We are the wheels that make the Irish economy turn but those wheels are coming off now. I hope that when the media are interviewing politicians about the hundreds of job losses at Fastway and the knock on impact on rural Ireland, they will ask the government why they didn’t listen to the haulage industry who warned of impending closures.”
Mr Hyland pointed out that the Fastway courier closure will have an enormous impact on Ireland’s rural economy where small businesses pay for packages to be delivered to customers in advance.
“This is only the beginning of the chaos. More haulage and transport companies will be forced out of business by the policies of this government. At this point in time, there are any number of small businesses that have paid for packages that are sitting in depots. Will customers get their products that they paid for? Will hauliers get paid for the work they have done?”
Mr Hyland called on the government to provide an immediate support package to the transport and haulage industry to try and stave off the worst of the impending closures.
