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01.09.2010
ITIA holds regional meetings in the West
The ITIA held two regional meetings in the west of the country last week. The first evening (25th August) was in Mullaghmore at the Beach Hotel in Sligo, with the second meeting (26th August) at the Clayton Hotel in Galway.
The meetings, for both ITIA members and non members, were well attended by Tyre Outlets, Wholesalers, Equipment suppliers and Recyclers.
Also there to speak about the issues affecting the industry and retail today were Avina Mc Nally from the Small Firms Association, Fiacra Quinn from TRACS, Lyn O Rourke from Elavon, Aaron Travers from Travers and Tom Dunworth from Galway County Council.
There were lively discussions at the meetings, with the urgent need to increase the level of compliance among retailers, by improving the reporting of tyre movement, the key topic of both evenings.
The message that the Government is seriously considering introducing a PRI (Producer Responsibility Initiative) sent a shock wave out to those attending, with the realisation that such a scheme would effectively be a stealth tax on the industry and adversely affect cash flow throughout the industry.
Tom Dunworth reported that ‘the majority of tyre outlets are doing everything right, they just need to report back to a compliance scheme or their local County Council."
His call to retailers to become fully compliant was reiterated by Fiacra Quinn who stated that: "90 % of the tyres coming into the country are being accounted for by TRACS which shows the system is working. Less than 50% of retailers have become compliant and if we don’t get this figure up the government is set to enforce a PRI scheme. This will be hugely detrimental to the entire industry, at a time where businesses are already under pressure."
The President of the ITIA, Dave Naughton explained why the Association is engaging in a series of regional meetings. He commented: "We are looking to activate the Tyre Retailers nationwide to become compliant, in order to protect the industry against the government plans to force a PRI onto us. It would affect all our businesses and with retail already suffering considerable constriction, we feel this effectively would be an extra tax on us, where we would have to pay for tyre disposal before we have even sold the tyre. We feel this will be too much for our members to bear, and if enforced will put tyre outlets out of business."
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