Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. The genesis to the legislation was a number of serious bus accidents in Kentstown, County Meath and Clara, County Offaly, and every speaker needs to be conscious of its background. There is a need for consistency in the testing of commercial vehicles. I compliment the RSA on achieving the target it set in the road safety strategy for annual road fatalities 12 months ahead of schedule. The target for the end of 2012 was 252 road fatalities annually. The authority will be significantly under this target by the end of this year based on fatalities to date. One fatality or serious injury on Irish roads is one too many but a great deal of good work has been done by the authority and Mr. Brett and his colleagues should be commended on that. Like every other Member, I am critical of the fact that the RSA is not directly answerable to the House in the context of parliamentary questions and so on. However, as an organisation, it has been responsive to individual queries that have been raised. I do not always agree with the response I receive but the staff have always made themselves available and responded in a prompt manner to matters I have raised.

I am concerned that the legislation opens the door for secondary legislation and the detail normally required in primary legislation has not been provided in this Bill and it will only be following its enactment that we will have sight of the secondary legislation. Sadly, most of that will go through the House on the nod. I hope the Minister will agree on Committee Stage to amend the legislation to ensure it requires a positive vote of the House to enact the regulations provided for in it.

The proposal to establish a single authority to monitor testing standards is welcome and positive and this will, hopefully, ensure consistency throughout the country. However, it is also important that the range of test centres is maintained because competition is needed between them to keep down prices and that will not happen if there is only one provider throughout the State, similar to the national car test. The operators must remain independent and spread out geographically. There are significant costs involved if commercial vehicle users have to travel significant distances to have their vehicles tested and have certificates issued.

With regard to standards, an issue relating to the national car test will become an issue for commercial vehicle users on foot of this legislation. The issue was brought to my attention by the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation as it concerned a young child. The child who is fragile has a number of difficulties. One is that the child's eyes are sensitive not only to sunlight but also to daylight due to the child's illness. The HSE paid for specially tinted windows to be put in a vehicle to alleviate the child's medical condition. The vehicle is four years old and had to undergo the national car test recently but it failed because of the tinted windows. The national car test centre referred the case to the RSA on appeal and the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation contacted the authority, which refused the appeal because flexibility is not provided in existing statutory instruments to deal with such cases. Unless this issue can be resolved, the child will be unable to travel in the vehicle for outings, hospital appointments and so forth. It has huge implications for the child who is now restricted to the home, despite the taxpayer having paid, through the HSE, for the windows to be tinted in the first place. This issue will also arise if a child is being transported to school in a commercial vehicle. Although the taxpayer will have paid to have the windows tinted, when the vehicle is presented for the NCT, it will be refused. The difficulty is that the current national car test regulations state excessively tinted windscreens or front side windows present a significant safety hazard for vehicle drivers and their occupants. I fully accept that in the vast majority of cases this is not an issue and that there is a safety aspect. However, I put it to the Minister of State that people of very large size are exempt under the law from wearing safety belts if they physically cannot close the belt. For a physical reason, therefore, a person can be exempt from wearing a safety belt, yet, also for a physical reason, a person's vehicle will not pass the NCT because of an adjustment made owing to a particular medical condition. There needs to be flexibility built into the system in order that, where there are medical or safety reasons, discretion can be provided for. I ask the Minister to deal with this issue. The RSA is looking into it and will undertake a review, although I do not know when it will be completed. The vehicle in question is off the road, however, and the child is housebound because the NCT certificate cannot be issued.

One of the provisions in the Bill is that the RSA will take over the issuing of driving licences. I bring to the Minister's attention an issue that needs to be addressed in the context of the Bill, namely, the storing of basic emergency data on the new credit card-type driving licence to be introduced next year. It will include data such as who should be contacted in the case of emergency - an ICE number - and basic medical data on long-term medical conditions such as diabetes, allergies to particular medicines, blood group and so on. This information is vital in treating someone at the scene of an accident or in an emergency and must be included in the new driving licence which must also include the existing provision in regard to organ donation. Under the proposed legislation, the card will automatically carry a photo, the name and address and date of birth of the holder, information on the licence type and details of the issuing authority. It will also carry a record of any penalty points or endorsements incurred and allow gardaí at a checkpoint to examine the driver's record, whereas, currently, a garda who stops a motorist cannot tell from examining the licence if the driver has been disqualified. While this will benefit gardaí and the authorities, we should make information available that could directly benefit the individual who holds the card. While it is not possible under the EU directive on driving licences to combine the new licence with the social welfare identity card, it should be possible to include emergency and basic medical data in it. Having immediate access to such basic medical data at the scene of an accident or in an emergency can be the difference between life and death for some and for others, it can have an impact on their length of stay in hospital. Making such data available with the consent of the driving licence holder will, therefore, not only save lives but also save the health service money.

The same applies to ICE numbers. It is a simple concept whereby the new electronic licence will store contact information in order that paramedics can contact a family member or friend in the event of an emergency. The emergency services have been promoting the use of ICE numbers on mobile phones, which is a welcome development. The difficulty is that most people now have smartphones with security numbers; therefore, it is impossible for the emergency services to access the data in order to access the ICE number. If the data were included in the credit card-type driving licence, they would be easily accessible to the emergency services and gardaí at the scene of an accident. The vast majority of emergency victims are not able to provide contact information for emergency workers, with research in the United Kingdom showing that fewer than one in five carries details of the person they would like to have telephoned following a serious accident. Taking these two steps would ensure paramedics at the scene of an accident or in an emergency would have access to both basic and more detailed medical information which would directly benefit those being treated by the emergency services. I urge the Minister to consider including this provision in the legislation.

It is important that local access to the driving licence is continued under the new system. People have access through the local authority network in order to submit their application and have their driving licence issued. This local element must be continued under any new structure the RSA introduces. The staff in the local authorities have the skill-set to deal with this service and, while it may not be possible to retain all of the staff operating the service, it should be possible to maintain the network and some of these skills to be used in the provision of services in local areas where people are used to submitting their applications and having them processed.

I want to deal with the issue of fuel prices, as well as the wider issue of cost. This legislation will result in increased costs, not immediately in regard to the new test but for the future in that it provides for additional statutory instruments to be introduced to set new standards. I urge the Minister to ensure any new standard being introduced carries a clear safety benefit and that we are not just concocting standards because it would be nice to have them in place. What we need is clear standards with a clear connection to safety and accident records. In tandem, there must be direct discussions with the insurance industry to ensure whatever savings are made result in a return to the road haulage industry and motorists in general. We have seen the industry absorb some of the savings made in recent years owing to the reduction in the number of fatalities and injuries on the roads.

An issue which will shortly come to a head concerns vintage vehicles. While this is not directly under the control of the Minister for Transport, it is a transport issue and connected to the proposed off-the-road tax of approximately €30 which the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is considering. There is such a system in place in the United Kingdom, but there is no tax charge. A person registers the vehicle as being off the road to deal with the issue of anomalies in motor tax, and if the vehicle is off the road, he or she does not pay a charge. The idea behind motor tax is that the driver pays for the use of the road in order that local authorities can repair and replace road surfaces. If a vehicle is off the road, why are we paying tax towards the cost of repairing roads? It does not make sense.

I specifically want to focus on the issue of vintage vehicles. Across the country not only vintage car clubs but also commercial vintage vehicle clubs do a huge amount of fund-raising. In my local area the South Roscommon Vintage Club which involves agricultural vehicles raises money every second or third weekend for many local charities. In fact, in the period from September to December 2011, vintage clubs around Ireland donated over €280,000 to local charities, an astronomical sum. Surely we should recognise this. There are already exemptions in the motor tax legislation. Surely we can get around the problem relating to vintage vehicles which are exempt in many countries in Europe. I realise there is a difficulty, but there will always be a difficulty in this country because someone will always find a loophole. I am confident, however, that it is within the capabilities of the officials in the Department of Transport and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to regulate to ensure there will be no loopholes.

I refer to the issue of fuel prices which are going out of control for all commercial operators. I accept the Government does not have a bottomless pit of money to deal with the issue. However, the additional VAT collected on fuel and fuel laundering are costing motorists approximately €1,000 every minute. Up to €500 million a annum is being lost through fuel laundering, a significant loss to the Exchequer, one that must be addressed urgently. I realise the Government is in talks with the British Government on the issue. However, we must put in place a system, whereby if additional savings are made, motorists will receive a return. If this was to materialise, there would be a direct incentive for motorists to report suspected cases of fuel laundering to the Revenue Commissioners. It is a difficult problem to police, but such vital information would be of direct benefit to the Revenue Commissioners and motorists. Everyone would win, including the Exchequer.

See this speech in context