Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Deputy asked that question. Shortly after I came into office I saw a "Prime Time" programme that dealt with the importation of written-off vehicles. We do not know the extent of it but it was quite alarming. I am determined to deal with it and I asked my officials to look at that. It is very complex. We are still looking at it and we are consulting the Attorney General. We will pursue the problem. We do not have all the data and we are not quite sure how far it goes or how extensive the problem is. We could have something prepared in a few months, but we do not want to delay the legislation specifically for that. I just want to go ahead with tackling the issue of written-off vehicles now with the commitment that we are pursuing this.

We could almost have a road traffic Bill every week because there are ongoing problems every week that we want to address. At some stage we have to say we will go ahead, but we are certainly addressing that problem. We are about half way there. We have opened up the problem, but to address the imported ones will take a little longer.