Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 17, line 14, to delete “and”.

This amendment relates to commercial vehicle roadworthiness. I have proposed a number of amendments to the Road Safety Authority (Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness) Act 2012 to tidy up some of the issues that have caused problems arising from the Act. The Act established the Road Safety Authority as the body responsible for overseeing commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing. Since its introduction, lessons have been learned which show the need to make some amendments to that Act. I have included a number of these amendments in the Bill itself. I have also decided that several more minor amendments are necessary.

Section 25 of the 2012 Act deals with the powers of authorised officers to enter CVR testing premises and conduct inspections and issue directions relating to failures to comply with the requirements and to the measures necessary to correct this. As originally drafted, the 2012 provisions inadvertently led to a situation whereby only the individual authorised office who conducted an inspection could issue a direction. I propose to amend this in order that other authorised officers could issue the direction. The situation I want to address is one in which an officer makes an inspection, produces a report on that inspection but may not be available when directions are sent out. I think this is an essential and practical change and is what was intended in the first place.

I am also amending section 34(1)(a) of the 2012 Act, which deals with the powers of inspectors. At present, section 34(1)(a) allows an inspector to stop and inspect a vehicle if the inspector is accompanied by a member of the Garda Síochána. I propose to extend that to members of Customs and Excise, so that if Customs and Excise stop the vehicle, the RSA inspector will be able to carry out an inspection. At present they are only allowed to do that if vehicles are stopped by a Garda.

The final change is to amend the language in section 41(4)(b) the original Bill which reads "enforcement officers, consultations or advisors" but should read “authorised officers, CVR inspectors, consultants and advisors”. I am not sure if the spell check caused that one.