Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a few points. It is important to reiterate that the Government's position is that we should not have cabotage and that there should be a genuine single market. The restrictions should not exist provided each country in the European Union has the same safety and social standards. In the meantime, the law should be enforced.

I was interested to hear Deputy Dooley's statistics. I may have heard them before but I do not recall hearing them. If he passes them on to me, I will certainly distribute them at the next meeting with the Road Safety Authority and the Garda Síochána and ask them for their views on them. Where enforcement is concerned, we often hear only one side of the story, however. People complain when enforcement does not happen but may not tell one when it does. The Deputy raised the issue of the ESB's Carrickmines site. I received an e-mail today in this regard from a foreign haulier whose name I will not give. He states he is from a company that tried last night to deliver a power transformer to the ESB's Carrickmines site and that the delivery was blocked at the port by the Road Safety Authority. The delivery could not go ahead as the inspector said the company was not following cabotage rules. The correspondent states he is informed that the Road Safety Authority will follow instructions given by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and that his company is seeking that the Minister and Department intervene. It is stated that what occurred could result in the omission of a serious piece of the ESB infrastructure for the Dublin area and could result in issues with the electricity network in Dublin. The company states it is looking forward to a derogation in this case in the knowledge that there is no transport company in Ireland with the specialist equipment to move the transformer. This is the kind of stuff I get all the time. Foreign hauliers believe I will change the law just for them. I do not do so. In this case, the Garda refused to escort the haulier.

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