Recent legislation which aimed to provide emergency support to members of the haulage industry was somewhat welcome. However, a substantial portion of the sector has been excluded. This week I have been contacted by Gleeson Concrete, which operates in Donohill, County Tipperary, as well as north Cork and Limerick. They are reliant on their hauliers but pointed out that while some delivery fleet personnel in the industry hold a haulage licence and will benefit from the emergency measure, the majority of International Coaching Federation member companies are own-account operators and therefore not required to hold a haulage licence. As a result, they are ineligible for the Government's support measures despite incurring the same level of cost increases as licensed hauliers. Coach and school bus operators have also fallen foul of this with school transport operators locked into contracts of up to five years at a time. Is the Government giving consideration to extending the measures to the many operators in the State that do not meet the limiting criteria it has set down? More than 6,000 people are directly employed in the sector.

The Government has taken measures to help and to alleviate the pressures on the sector. As I said earlier, we cannot do everything. There are limits to what governments can do and they cannot 100% compensate every situation. We have to bear that in mind. We are conscious of the impact of the war, the issues arising from supply chain difficulties and inflationary pressures. We have to look at this over the 12-month cycle.

Yes, but most of these are own-account operators and they are not eligible.

I know, but, unfortunately, the impacts of this will be longer term than we might have anticipated.