Lorry drivers' protest to disrupt Dublin traffic

Severe traffic disruption is expected in Dublin city centre this morning as Wicklow hauliers organise a slow-moving protest-convoy to Government buildings.

Anywhere between 60 and 200 lorries will travel in the protest which is in response to the closure of illegal dumps in Co Wicklow.

The hauliers claim their livelihoods are under threat because of the dump closures. Yesterday they blockaded Wicklow County Council offices in Wicklow town in a show of strength featuring about 20 lorries.

This morning they are hoping to have at least 60 lorries - some hauliers have claimed as many as 200 will be involved - leaving Blessington village at 8 a.m. and travelling to the capital.

The route will be along the N81 from Co Wicklow, through Tallaght to the M50, entering the city through Con Colbert Road. They will then drive down the quays, turning at O'Connell Bridge into the south inner-city. The hauliers will focus their protest on Government Buildings, because the Dβil is on holidays.

The hauliers say they have taken the action because they received no support from Wicklow County Council, for their plight. Speaking to The Irish Times in Ashford, near Wicklow town yesterday morning, one of the protest organisers, Mr David Whyte, said haulage was a legitimate tax-paying business and was now facing lay-offs in the order of several hundred across the county.

Since the discovery of clinical hospital waste in a number of illegal dumps in Co Wicklow the council has taken action to close dumps and a number of others have closed voluntarily.

However, Mr Whyte said "ordinary hauliers" who he claimed only dumped "muck and builders rubble, demolition waste," had lost out because of the closure of all unlicensed dumps. He said the council had suggested hauliers pay £2,000 a load to private licensed landfills or export their waste to Germany at a similar cost.

Mr Whyte said he expected hauliers to be having similar difficulties in counties Meath and Kildare and he was confident hauliers from those counties would join this morning's protest.

Many haulage firms represented yesterday had travelled across the Sally Gap from Blessington in West Wicklow to gather outside Ashford before dawn. Some 23 lorries passed through the villages of Ashford and Rathnew in a slow convoy with horns blaring and flashing lights before parking outside council offices in a cacophony of noise.

The leaders of the protest then met with acting secretary of Wicklow County Council, Mr Liam Fitzpatrick, but said they were offered no succour. Outside, the council's environmental officer, Mr Michael Nicholson, said he had noted the registration numbers of 19 vehicles. Garda∅ said the protest is unlikely to be stopped due to "Operation Freeflow".