Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

To give Deputy O'Shea an idea of what we are dealing with, the systems for safety of trucks are in the process of being developed. Many of them are at the research and development stage. There are a number of suppliers and we must deal with all of them. We must get the proper equipment for the particular type of truck. There are four different types of truck in the Army. I am sure neither Deputy O'Shea nor any other Deputy would like us to buy systems which turned out to be incompatible with the trucks for which they were to be used.

The accident was in June and the report was supposed to be completed and available by the end of 2007 but it was not because of delays in potential suppliers getting back to us. It was finally completed in February 2008. In April 2008 instructions were first given to begin testing. Systems have been fitted to a small number of trucks and I believe three out of the four types of truck are covered. No other country has the system we are discussing in place. I do not use this as an excuse but I want to make the point that the system is in the early stages of development. The British are examining it and they recently placed an order for a number of systems for a very small number of British Army trucks. We are leading the way in this regard and I assure Deputy O'Shea that no expense will be spared. We have an allocation of approximately €500,000 for what we are doing this year and this will be more than what is required.

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