Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 76:

In page 53, after line 13, to insert the following: “Effect and validity of certain regulations

57.(1) Notwithstanding section 5(1) of the European Communities Act 2007, the Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 5 of 2003) (referred to in this section as the “Principal Regulations”) shall not have statutory effect pursuant to that section and shall be deemed to have been validly made under sections 5, 11, 12 and 13 of the Act of 1961, sections 8, 10 and 11 of the Road Traffic Act 1968 and section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 on the date those Regulations were purported to be made.

(2) Notwithstanding section 5(1) of the European Communities Act 2007, the Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations 2004 (S.I. No. 99 of 2004) shall not have statutory effect pursuant to that section and shall be deemed to have been validly made under sections 5 and 11 of the Act of 1961 and section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 on the date those Regulations were purported to be made.

(3) Subject to subsections (4)and (5), all regulations amending the Principal Regulations made before the coming into operation of this section shall be deemed to have been validly made on the date those Regulations were purported to be made.

(4) The Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 136 of 2015) shall be deemed to have been validly made under sections 11 and 12 of the Act of 1961 and section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 on the date those Regulations were purported to be made.

(5) The Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 23 of 2018) shall be deemed to have been validly made under sections 5, 11 and 12 of the Act of 1961, sections 8, 10 and 11 of the Road Traffic Act 1968 and section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 on the date those Regulations were purported be made.

(6) Every act done, or purporting to have been done, under the Principal Regulations before the date of coming into operation of this section shall be deemed to be, and always to have been, valid and effectual for all purposes.

(7) If subsection (6)would, but for this subsection, conflict with a constitutional right of any person, the operation of that subsection shall be subject to such limitation as is necessary to secure that it does not so conflict but shall otherwise be of full force and effect.”.

Some of the amendments have, on reflection, been substantive. I think the debate has been very useful and very good. This amendment is more on the technical nature. Amendment No. 76 is designed to address an irregularity in the enabling provisions for certain road traffic regulations with regard to the construction and use of vehicles, that is, the maximum weights and dimensions permitted for vehicles driven on our roads. Based on advice from the Attorney General's office and my Department’s legal advisers, I am proposing to insert new text to state that the construction and use of vehicles regulations made between 2003 and 2007, and those made in 2015 and 2018, do not have statutory effect and were validly made under the Road Traffic Acts, including section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 2006. This change confers the appropriate vires to give effect to European legislation and allows us to make further amendments to those regulations from time to time as needed.

As I said, it is a purely technical amendment and so does not itself imply any change to broader policy in the area. Our next steps, once this has come into effect, will be to transpose European regulations to allow an increase in permitted weights for zero-emission vehicles as part of our ongoing efforts to support the switch away from fossil fuels.

Amendment No. 78 follows this with a consequential change to the Long Title of the Bill. A gap has been seen in the implementation of EU directives and this is an opportunity to clean it up.