Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to reiterate the points the Minister made in terms of the devastating impact Covid-19 has had on our transport sector and international networks. I have had several meetings with stakeholders in both the aviation and maritime sectors and I am acutely aware of the financial precipice on which they find themselves. I profoundly hope that the adoption of the broad EU approach to facilitating international travel next month will provide certainty and clarity for these sectors and enable their viable operation into 2021.

Considering the impact of Covid-19 on international travel and global supply chains, one of my key priorities is to ensure continuity of transport links to and from Ireland as well as ensuring that goods can continue to move throughout Ireland. During March and April, a drop in overall freight activity levels was evident given the temporary closure of many retail outlets and construction sites in Ireland and abroad. While supply chains are functioning well at the present time, we continue to closely monitor them.

As more shops and construction sites reopened through the phases of recovery and as other economies abroad began to reopen, business began to increase for hauliers. Heavy goods vehicle traffic on our roads has rebounded for the most part to 100% of pre-Covid traffic levels. Given the importance of the work of our road haulage sector during these difficult times, my Department implemented a number of measures to support the continued functioning of the sector in recent months, including a prolonged temporary derogation for certain provisions of the EU driving and rest hours rules, which expired at the end of May; the extension of expiry dates on driver certificate of professional competence cards of a maximum of six months up to 26 September; and the extension of validity periods for driver licences.

In addition, a number of communications have also been issued to help support the freight sector as it operates through these challenging times such as the public health guidance developed to assist hauliers in the safe operation of their job in an international environment. While lockdowns and other co-ordinated restrictive measures were implemented as necessary this year to save lives, these measures have also severely slowed down economies across the EU and can delay the delivery of critical goods and services. Working in co-operation with member states, the European Commission has taken a number of measures to ensure continued and uninterrupted land, water-borne and air cargo services. These services are of crucial importance for the functioning of the EU's internal market and its effective response to the current public health crisis.

Continuing in this vein, member states, under the stewardship of the German Presidency, are now calling on the Commission to consider drawing up a pandemic and crisis contingency plan for the European freight transport sector. I consider such a plan to be prudent. We must avoid a situation where member states act unilaterally to adopt their own diverging contingency measures. Being on the western extreme of the EU supply chain Ireland has a heavy reliance on all member states working together to ensure that goods can move freely across the EU and beyond, not just for land transport services but also for our shipping and aviation services.

Road works were suspended during the peak Covid-19 restrictions before recommencing in May. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, has not reported significant national road project delays, although a slightly reduced productivity level has been noted. Just this week I was delighted to announce with the Minister, the completion of a significant €14 million safety investment for the N60 in Roscommon. As well as the investment in active travel noted by the Minister, on foot of the Government's July stimulus package more than €10 million was awarded by the Department's regional and local roads division to local authorities for climate adaptation works. Under climate change adaptation measures, 273 projects are to be completed this year involving 150 schemes aimed at alleviating flooding to roads and property, 37 involving works to improve embankment stability to prevent slippage, 41 relating to essential road repairs associated with severe weather and 45 to bridge strengthening and repairs.

Operationally, road traffic volumes fell dramatically in spring due to Covid-19 travel restrictions falling to approximately one third of 2019 levels during April. They then recovered significantly as restrictions eased and appear to have plateaued recently at approximately 80% of 2019 levels. That is in contrast to public transport volumes which remain depressed. Despite this fall in road traffic, however, road fatalities are higher than at this time last year. This is seriously concerning to me and, I am sure, to all Members. I appeal to our citizens to always drive safely.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of essential road safety services delivered by my Department and its agencies were closed or severely reduced. The national driver licence service, NDLS, the national car test, the commercial vehicle roadworthiness test and the driver testing and driver theory testing services closed in March 2020 as they could not be continued at that time in light of overriding considerations of public health. As a result, the Government moved to extend validity periods of the relevant permits and certificates to ensure people, including essential transport workers, could continue to drive, ensuring continued access to and provision of essential services. All services have now reopened although due to social distancing requirements not all are able to return to their pre-Covid capacity, and there remains some backlog. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, which operates the national driver licence service on behalf of the Department, continues to work with its providers to see how they can increase capacity within the NDLS while adhering to the return to work protocol. The RSA also hopes to extend its online services over the coming months, subject to the appropriate legislation and technical solutions being put in place.

The driver theory test system capacity since resumption has increased on pre-Covid levels with 19,000 tests per months as against 15,000 tests but the scale of the backlog, combined with the time of year when many school leavers will apply, means increased waiting lists. The RSA is working with the service provider to see how capacity can be further increased. My Department has already approved the retention and hiring of a number of temporary testers to assist in the situation. The authority recently submitted a comprehensive plan for addressing the demands on the service, which is being considered by my Department. It is important to be realistic. There are no easy fixes, and public health and safety must come first.

The transport sector has faced an unprecedented disruption over the past six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our priority as a Government is to support it through the coming year, ensuring its safe and continued operation, maintain our essential international connectivity, and protect its ongoing and fundamental contribution to our economy.

See this speech in context