The head of the Irish Road Haulage Association says he welcomes a plan to scrap a cap on the number of work permits for lorry drivers from outside Europe.
The Government is to end a quota for lorry drivers from countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
But Eugene Drennan told The Hard Shoulder this is just a first step in the process.
"It falls short in two or three places. I don't want to run down the Minister because it is a proactive step, but it's the first step in a process.
"And he has to step another bit up to the mark to even it out a bit, and the Department of Transport must come in behind it as well.
"And they say they had big liaison with transport, but it's not visible there."
He says the number of countries that can exchange their licence for a heavy duty licence, and not to have to do a test again, is quite limited.
"There are only five countries it's available to, and there's definitely three of them that'll never bother coming here for the most part."
He says this option is open to nations including the UK, Canada, South Africa and South Korea.
But he says any talk of getting enough drivers in time for Christmas seems unlikely, given the cumbersome process of hiring people from abroad.
"First and foremost you must advertise for four weeks that you intend to do this, in case somebody in Ireland will want the job.
"Then the applicant applies here, comes to here.
"Even though he may have, coming with him, and got a verified version of what would be like Garda vetting here... it has to go into the Department of Transport to send it back to get a police people [sic] over there to say 'Yes this is ours'.
"Then they have to apply to the Department of Enterprise and Employment, then they come back to Transport again and they apply for their licence.
"And only when they exchange [their] licence, can they apply for the DIGI card - which you need to drive here, and they have to get up to date with their CPCs.
"And then, should they happen to be going to the UK, can they only apply for the permit to drive to the UK or wherever they're going".
He says the process can take up to 16 weeks, meaning it could be next March before the issue is resolved.
