Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I will begin by putting some questions to Mr. Fintan Towey. Over the last few years, every lorry driver has had to take the certificate of professional competence. It makes a lorry driver a competent driver. As part of that process, lorry drivers are given explanations about drinking and driving, etc. Mr. Towey spoke about Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann. Is he suggesting that small operators who employ two or three people should be responsible for getting breathalyser tests done on each of their drivers, who might leave somewhere like Ballyhaunis or Cork with the fridge on to bring a load of meat out of this country? Where do employers stand in all of this from an employment rights perspective?

How legal is what the Department is proposing to do? A person who has taken a certificate of professional competence is supposed, as a competent driver, to check his or her vehicle every morning. I suggest that knowing the legal alcohol limits and the law with regard to drug abuse is supposed to be part of being a competent driver. Those who are shoving this over to employers have given us American statistics, but I remind them that drivers in America could spend a fortnight on a road train. That is not the case in Ireland. Irish drivers go out of the country. Did the departmental officials look at the legality of what they are trying to impose on the heavy goods vehicle sector, which is under ferocious pressure at the moment? No one condones drink driving, but to be quite frank, I think what the Department is trying to do will never work from a legal perspective. I would like to hear Mr. Towey's comments on that.

Reference has been made to what England has done with regard to licences. Why does Ireland use EU licences if countries do not have joined-up thinking with one another? The new licences at the moment are EU licences. Why have we not stayed with our own Irish licences if England basically does not even recognise what is going on at the moment? It needs to be made clear that the points system does not work between the two countries.

As someone who has a daughter with diabetes, I would like to tell Professor Cusack I am aware that people in England who have diabetes are coming under fair pressure to keep their licences. Having promoted people to do things in this country, are we going to bring in a scenario where this will happen because of certain illnesses? I would not like to see that happen. I think those fears need to be allayed very quickly.