The ITIA held two Regional meetings in the west of the country this week.  The first evening (25^th August) was in Mullaghmore at the Beach Hotel in Sligo, with the second meeting (26^th 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 are 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 are engaging in a series of regional meetings saying ‘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. ‘

Watch this space as with the success of the first two meetings the plan is to roll out the meetings nationwide.

Mulvey Tyres have had a break in and has 73 Tyres stolen.

Please Alert us if you think someone has tried to sell you these Tyres.

Tyres stolen:

225 5017- Federal Triangle and Continental
225 5017 – Federal
225 4517 – Federal and Continental
205 4017 – Triangle
205 5017 – Federal
275 4018 – Dunlop