A cartel is in operation for the provision of haulage licence courses which excludes other companies charging almost half the price, it has been claimed.

Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice said, "There is something rotten, something that stinks, about what has occurred."

He claimed the cartel operated in the east of the country preventing companies in the west, including one in Leitrim, from offering the courses leading to a haulage licence, at a much cheaper rate.

He alleged the Department of Transport, the Chartered Institute of Logistics in Transport and a “cartel involving the suppliers of courses are caught up in a web that is keeping people out of the industry”.

Mr Fitzmaurice said for four years one company “has been excluded from the system because it is able to offer courses for nearly half the price currently being charged by the cartel”.

“The EU talks about open competition for everyone. For a small SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] to have to go to court to vindicate its entitlements is unacceptable,” he said.

Mr Fitzmaurice, TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim, said the only option left for Hynes Quinn, a company in Leitrim with 20 employees, was to challenge this in court.

‘Seriously concerned’

Raising the issue during Leaders’ Questions, he said the Competition and

Consumer Protection Commission

had written to him “making clear that the office is seriously concerned about what is taking place”.

Tánaiste Joan Burton told him the detail of the question would be better directed to the Minister for Transport “as it concerns references to specific companies”.

But she pledged to have the matter examined and to get back to Mr Fitzmaurice with a response.

The TD told her two ministers for transport had been in place since 2011, “neither of whom has cracked this cartel”.

He said every time the issue was raised “the reply states that the matter is under review. A review was undertaken in 2011 but the companies seeking to compete in providing courses did not receive a response.”

Under review

He said last year “when I wrote to the department, I was informed again that the matter was under a review”.

“It is clear the buck is being passed,” he said.

The Independent TD said 80 per cent of one company’s work was based in Athlone but “when it raised its head above the parapet”, all HGV testing for buses and trucks was suspended in the town in the past week. “Health and safety and a lack of places to turn a vehicle were the excuses given for the suspension,” he said but he knew 100 roads around Athlone where a HGV could be turned.

Ms Burton, who highlighted the apprenticeships being put in place for hauliers, said: “If this matter is purely one of competition, I would expect the Competition Authority to be interested in it were it referred by the deputy and others.”

Mr Fitzmaurice told her he had already made it clear the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission “has said what is going on is wrong”.