Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Arising from an accident involving a troop carrying vehicle in Granard, County Longford in June 2007, a study group was formed to advise on the introduction of a roll-over protection system for troop carrying vehicles incorporating roll bars and safety belts. The total requirement identified by the study group included the fitting of the system to 135 trucks. The fleet is made up of four makes or models of vehicles with vehicle bodies of different specification across the model range. There is no standard roll-over protection system for military vehicles in service with the Defence Forces. For that reason, the evaluation of a suitable system to satisfy all demands requires the examination of solutions from a number of potential suppliers.

The Defence Forces plan to fit the systems to a number of selected vehicles initially for a pilot phase to allow for testing and consideration of the most suitable system for each particular type of vehicle. A company was requested to fit a system to a troop carrying vehicle for evaluation and trial. The company advised in April that due to the manner of construction of the vehicles, it might take six to eight weeks to manufacture and fit such a system. A roll-over protection system was fitted to a DAF 4x4 troop carrying vehicle in July 2008. This vehicle is in service with an operational unit for evaluation purposes.

During the month of October a system of standard pattern seat-belts was fitted to a troop carrying vehicle and a roll-over protection system was fitted to another troop carrying vehicle. Other systems and products are on order from other suppliers and these will be fitted to selected vehicles and made ready for testing in the next couple of weeks. All of the equipment will be evaluated by an operational unit. Following a period of evaluation and user feedback, the findings from the evaluations will be presented to the general staff of the Defence Forces for their input before a final tender competition is conducted for a suitable restraint system.

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