Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)

Yes.

I welcome the Road Safety (Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness) Bill 2012 and the associated improvements it will bring to enhance road safety, especially with regard to the roadworthiness and the testing system for commercial vehicles and the introduction of inspection systems. The introduction of plastic card driver licences is a modern move which should have been in place many years ago. I commend the Minister and his staff on introducing this new type of licence. We will also have a more efficient administrative and management system for driver licensing. The local authorities managed them heretofore but this new system will give the RSA a more enhanced and involved role, an agency with a good track record in general road safety improvement. I recognise the role played by the RSA, the local authorities, the Garda, road traffic organisations such as the AA and, more importantly, the general public in improving road safety and in the reduction of road deaths.

Commercial vehicles, especially, require enhanced safety standards. In the case of buses, we have seen some tragic accidents with some fatalities. It is only right that we have in place the highest possible standards and inspection systems for such vehicles. Heavy goods vehicles, particularly those which carry dangerous cargoes such as chemicals, gases and oil, must have the highest of safety standards applied to them. The potential damage such vehicles could create if anything went wrong would be devastating. For these reasons, I welcome the improvements the Bill will bring to this area.

An old hobby-horse of mine is the lack of adequate rest and service stations on our national road network and motorways. While the M1 from Dublin to Belfast is well serviced, the road on which I travel most frequently, the M9 from Dublin to Waterford consisting of 100 miles, has no online service or rest station. A station has been proposed in the general Kilcullen area but no progress has been made of late. The Irish Road Haulage Association also complains about the lack of adequate service and rest stations. Truck drivers must stop when they need rest. Fatigue and the lack of toilet facilities for drivers, however, needs to be addressed. I often see large articulated lorries, as well as buses, pulled over on hard shoulders, where people are forced to go to the toilet. Otherwise, they would have to go miles offline which is not an appropriate option.

The N25, which traverses County Waterford and runs from Rosslare to Cork, also does not have adequate service and rest stations. The National Roads Authority's guidelines for planning authorities, produced only in January 2012, encourage lorries to go offline into towns and villages to use such stations. The reality on the ground is that many of these smaller and traditional service stations are closed. In any event, they are too small for large lorries to manoeuvre into.

The NRA guidelines state:

A proliferation of service area facilities along rural sections of national roads and/or associated junctions, where the maximum speed limit applies, would create significant safety risks and affect the level of service available to road users, as well as impact on the viability and vitality of existing urban settlements. In general sufficient road side facilities exist on non-motorway national road network.

This paragraph is outdated, inadequate and does not address needs on non-national roads. Many garages and service areas in small towns and villages have closed and I do not see how this paragraph will improve road safety, as there are no places for people to stop, especially long-distance lorry drivers who, by law, need to rest adequately.

There is a need for the National Roads Authority, NRA, local authorities and the Department to consider this document again in order to try in a real effort to identify areas where it is acceptable to have such service stations. The document is inadequate. I can quote from a real case in which an application was made for a service station on the N25 in County Waterford, where there are few facilities for commercial vehicles. Waterford city has now been bypassed and much good work has been done in making road improvements. However, there are no service stations or rest areas for the drivers of large articulated lorries.

As a solution, local authorities could strategically zone identified areas along national roads. That would at least allow preliminary exploration of the need for service areas. We should not have a service station at every crossroads and junction 100 metres apart, but we should have a planned and strategic approach to this important matter. I will continue to lobby and discuss the matter until something is done.

The road network, including local, regional and national routes, should be managed more professionally from an asset management perspective. There should be an electronic mapping system for all roads. Although some local authorities may have them, there is no central data system or asset management. There should be digital mapping with records of maintenance, clearing of gullies and inlets, dangerous junctions and accident sites. There should be an oversight system to consider all of these issues which would not depend on the local knowledge of overseers and council workers. We have lost many of these overseers and with them much local knowledge of inlets and gullies. When they are blocked, roads can be damaged and we throw good money after bad in trying to repair and maintain them because the water cannot escape. As with utilities like water and electricity etc., the roads should be managed with a professional system. The Department and the Minister have a role to play. Although local authorities manage their own systems, we should examine the possibility of having a more efficient national system to oversee the expenditure of public moneys on road maintenance in a more efficient manner.

We should always recognise the need to regularly revisit the issue of road safety. I acknowledge the Minister of State's presence in the House. He is a rural Deputy and would accept and acknowledge the need for continued investment in rural roads. I also commend him for his efforts to date in maintaining rural transport networks. It is important that nobody is isolated in this small country of ours. We should maintain as far as possible a safe road traffic network.

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