Mr. Peadar Ward:

I thank the Deputies and the Chairman. As members will be aware many EU directives differ from country to country so one cannot say the same approach is taken in every country. For the most part there is no differentiation between goods vehicles and other historic vehicles in EU countries. They are not treated differently. For the most part, vehicles over 30 years old are not subjected to roadworthiness testing in most European countries. The current directive being discussed at EU level will propose that vehicles over 30 years old will not be subject to roadworthiness testing.

Having said that, this will be a directive rather than a regulation that each member state will decide how to implement.

Deputy Harrington asked about the vehicle safety and so on and I shall point out two particular things in that regard. First, the people who own an historic goods vehicle, motorbike or passenger car are enthusiasts who are interested in preserving the vehicle and its history for posterity. It is rare to ask an enthusiast what type of car or truck he or she owns because inevitably he or she will own more than one as. It is like a disease. People will want to collect more and become very enthusiastic about them.

My next point is particularly relevant to insurance. Mr. Kinneen referred to the fact that owners of these trucks can avail of special rates of insurance and the same applies to historic cars. The insurance rate is very competitive because the vehicles are a good risk for a couple of reasons. First, they are maintained to a very high standard. Second, the number of kilometres or hours that they spend on the road is limited. I have drawn attention to the fact that the last FIVA survey showed that 15,000 km was the average mileage for cars and all historical vehicles. In fact, it is considerably less for goods vehicles because they are not driven on the roads.