A NEW report from InterTradeIreland, entitled Freight Transport Report for the Island of Ireland, will be presented to Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and the Northern minister for regional development Conor Murphy this morning.
It will recommend an all-island maximum height for lorries of 4.95m which is too high to use Dublin Port Tunnel. InterTradeIreland will also recommend joint North-South regulations on maximum weights for lorries and an increase in speed limits in line with standards applicable in the North.
The report, which is supported by Ibec and the Confederation of British Industry, is set to re-ignite the controversy over the Port Tunnel, which saw former taoiseach Bertie Ahern declare the Republic didn’t want so-called “super cube” lorries.
However, the report found these vehicles, while just 30cm higher, can carry 50 per cent more goods than their smaller counterparts.
Apart from the height issue it will recommend increasing the 40mph speed limit for HGVs on high-quality single carriageway roads in Northern Ireland, to 50mph (80km/h).
However, the report said the Irish Government should consider reducing the HGV speed limit on regional roads, from the current 80km/h to 70km/h, for safety reasons.
Irish Road Haulage spokesman Jimmy Quinn said that since the Dublin Port Tunnel controversy, higher vehicles had become the norm for the UK, while Reg McCabe of the Ibec CBI Joint Consultative Council, said anything creating a different regulatory trading environment on one side of the Border was to be avoided.
