Retail Excellence Ireland says another major protest by truckers would have a serious impact on shops at an already challenging time.
Irish Truckers and Haulage Association Against Fuel Prices says it's planning another demonstration in the first week of December, after a convoy caused traffic chaos in Dublin on Wednesday morning.
The group is threatening further action ahead of Christmas, unless the government takes action to reduce the cost of fuel.
But Managing Director of Retail Excellence Ireland, Duncan Graham, says now is not the right time to stage another major demonstration:
"You push them into the edge of town shopping centres or, perhaps even worse at this time of the year, you're pushing them into shopping at weekends. The one thing that we don't need, particularly with COVID numbers rising, is bottlenecks of shoppers at weekends when we could be very easily spreading them through the week. So any thoughts of further protests between now and Christmas would have a serious impact on retail at a very fragile time."
