Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

The key point is that the overhaul of commercial vehicles roadworthiness testing commenced following the tragic crash in Navan where, sadly and tragically, five teenagers lost their lives. Following that, the first task of the Road Safety Authority was to do that report. The Minister's colleague, the then Minister for Transport, Deputy Martin Cullen, was responsible for that. In April 2007, the report was presented to the Government.

In February 2008, the Minister said the overhaul would happen immediately. I have the press statement here. The expectation was that the Road Safety Authority, RSA, would take over responsibility for the future management and operation of the vehicle testing system for local authorities and that there would be a major overhaul of the system. That has not happened to date. The Road Safety Authority is not in charge, does not have oversight and does not have all the facts and statistics relating to the number of heavy goods vehicles, public service vehicles and so forth that are dangerous but are on our roads. It cannot and does not have responsibility for them, because the Minister did not do his job.

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