Supports for Hauliers and Supply Chains: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30 ============================================================ Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim -----here today, we have not seen it on paper. It would be very useful to get that. Anything that happens that benefits people is welcome, but the problem is that it has been like pulling teeth to get even this far and we have an awful long journey to go to ensure ordinary people can get any sense they are being looked after in all of this. The one thing I found when talking to people out on the protest was that the change they wanted to see was the price coming down at the pump for everybody, not just for the sectors. They thought everybody needed to get it so that the ordinary people who had to travel to work and bring their children to appointments would all benefit as well. So far there has been little for them. That is one of the problems with this package. The agriculture industry has also, of course, been acutely affected. The first announcement, which brought down 3 cent off the green diesel, was absolutely laughable. It is welcome that there is a change in that. However, again, it is not this year; it is going back looking at what fuel they used last year and taking five months off that. A whole complicated process has been put in place, which is regrettable. The way to do it is to put it at what people buy today and reduce it for them now. That is what people wanted to see happen. That has not happened. That is one of the most regrettable parts of this. We need to see a mini budget. We need to see something put in place that will deliver for ordinary people. The USC is a clear area where something needs to be done. It was brought in as an emergency years ago but nothing has happened since then. It has been kept. We are well past that emergency now. The emergency is at the other side to try to remove it. I wish to make a point regarding haulage. I have had several haulage companies contact me. It is very difficult to get drivers. An awful lot of them are having to bring drivers in from abroad, particularly from outside of the European Union. The immigration portal that has been set up is an absolute disaster. People are waiting months to get processed and they are waiting months even for renewals. Perhaps that is the something the Minister will raise with the Minister for justice because it is a real problem for people apart from the other crisis that we have regarding costs. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-30