Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

I am a little puzzled by this proposed legislation. Normally there is a fairly clear rationale with the presentation of legislation, although we might agree only with part of that. Legislation would usually look to do something better or in a more cost-effective or streamlined fashion. It would try to ensure there are more consistent standards or that it would be easier for people to access services contained in the legislation. I do not see that happening in this legislation and I did not hear how this would happen in the Minister of State's presentation of the Bill. That troubles me quite a lot.

Road deaths have, unfortunately, affected almost every community and most families throughout this country. The issue has caused much heartache and so much suffering for many, and it cannot be dealt with lightly. It is important we have proper and sufficient regulation in place in order that the country's roads can be a safe place for every person using them. Commercial vehicles should be subject to this proper legislation, as they make up a significant number of vehicles on the roads. The roadworthiness of those vehicles must be ensured to be of the highest standards available if we are to be certain of road safety in so far as we can ever be certain of such safety.

The ultimate objective of all legislation surrounding roadworthiness and traffic regulations is to save lives and prevent damage to limb and property on the roads. There should be systems in place, therefore, that are simple, concise and clear, and which allow the best result for the roadworthiness of vehicles and safety of other road users. l have referred previously to a fairly simple principle I use in life, which is to make it easy for people to do the right thing and make it difficult for them to do the wrong thing. The people who need to be targeted by legislation such as this are those who do not provide for the proper upkeep of commercial vehicles and who, by their recklessness, put the lives and limbs of others in danger.

The problem I have with the legislation is it will not improve the current system of commercial vehicle testing. It will change a process but I do not see where it will change an outcome. When a problem arises with licensing and the testing of the roadworthiness of a commercial vehicle, it should be stamped out at source and, therefore, taking powers from local authorities and handing them to a centralised body will not automatically lead to improved road safety. A recent OECD report on the public service in Ireland argued that local authorities should be used more frequently in the delivery of public services and we need to have that debate in the House. We need to examine the entire range of public services to ascertain what can best be done at local and national level and, in the absence of that debate and analysis, that legislation has pulled bits in isolation from the overall and tried to slot them into different places. We need a wider analysis of the public service as a whole and we need to decide, based on rationale and logic, what can be done better at local, regional and national level.

The current vehicle testing service enjoys a high level of customer satisfaction and I fear the legislation will further erode the provision of public services by local authorities. For example, waste collection services have been privatised and there are serious concerns about the future of the control of our water services. The privatisation of the licensing system for commercial vehicles cannot be a step in the right direction without the wider analysis which I mentioned being carried out. I refer to the centralisation of medical card processing. Most Members had queues of people calling to their constituency offices because of the centralisation of a service that was better provided at local level. It was a debacle and it ran into the ground. Those who were processing medical cards were not properly trained to do so and insufficient staff were available. This service was supposed to improve the consistency and quality of decision-making, streamline the processing of applications and provide for faster eligibility decisions but it did exactly the opposite. The service was centralised but not enough thought was given to the impact of centralisation. The outcome was the opposite of the stated intention of the legislation dealing with the processing of medical cards. However, the Government has not learned lessons from this debacle. The public and staff still do not know what is happening. So many complaints were received by Oireachtas Members that a delegation from the Joint Committee on Health and Children visited the medical card processing facility in Finglas. How long will it be before transport committee members call to the new centralised office provided for in the Bill?

We will table amendments to the legislation on the assumption it will pass this Stage, particularly to the section dealing with commercial vehicle test operators. The section provides that it will be the Minister's prerogative to allow people who have been convicted of different offences to be employed as test operators. As Deputy Ellis said, the legislation does not make allowances for those who qualify under the Good Friday Agreement. They were political prisoners and they should not be excluded from employment.

I ask the Minister of State and his officials to revisit the rationale for introducing the legislation and to think about whether it will improve the service for those who need access to it. If there is a risk the proposed centre ends up like the medical card processing in Finglas, they need to go back to the drawing board. If the Bill passes Second Stage, we will table amendments.

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