The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has hit out at IBEC director-general Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, accusing him of intimadatory tactics and misrepresentation.

The statement follows a letter to the association from Mr O'Sullivan in which he said that an IBEC cost survey indicated its members' transport costs had risen by 23 per cent in the past two years.

"It appears that the last thing your members have done is to absorb rising costs," he wrote.

Mr Eamonn Morrisey, president of the IRHA, has written back to the IBEC chief, saying there had been no such rise in IRHA costs.

"Many of our members would also be affiliated to IBEC and would expect the group to lobby on their behalf, not castigate and threaten them," he said.

Mr Morrisey said he believed IBEC had "lost its way as an organisation" and was out of touch.