Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I ask the Leader to inquire into why the Department of Transport has not revoked any haulage licence over the past two years, despite the fact that 14,000 infringements have been drawn to its attention by the British and Irish policing bodies. The British say they have drawn attention to 8,000 offences in the past year and no licence has been revoked. The offences to which I refer are breaches of driving hours, driving overloaded vehicles and failing road-worthiness tests. Apparently the Irish Road Haulage Association is concerned because when it spoke to the Department of Transport, it said it had not revoked any licences because it believes there is a constitutional problem about doing so. If that is so, it is in the hands of the Minister to do something about it.

If road haulage vehicles are being driven in breach of legislation and creating offences in Britain and Ireland, it makes a mockery of our legislation. It makes a mockery in that the British drew to our attention 8,000 offences and we did nothing about it, and, apparently, we have no plans to do anything about it in the immediate future. I ask the Leader to draw to the attention of the Minister for Transport this situation and to please return with an answer on whether something is being done about it.