Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I do not wish to incur Senator O'Toole's wrath by criticising the Garda but it would be useful if the Leader could obtain information from the Minister for Transport about the intensity of road traffic enforcement on those roads identified as giving rise to the greatest number of fatalities. Anecdotal evidence indicates that there is fairly intensive speed limit patrolling on dual carriageways and motorways. Is there a Garda policy which states that speed limits should be most rigorously enforced, as ought to be the case, on those stretches of national primary routes that have been identified as having the highest fatality rates? This is not a criticism, it is merely a valid question that deserves an answer.

Although it took two efforts on the part of the Department of Transport to confirm this, I understand that all heavy goods vehicles are meant to be fitted with regulators which prevent them from exceeding 55 mph. When I first inquired about this with the Department, I was informed that there is no such regulation. The Road Haulage Association indicated that the regulation does exist. When I checked again with the Department, I was informed that the regulation does exist and I was kindly supplied with a copy of it. Everybody's experience is that HGVs travel at 60 mph on main roads and at 70 mph on motorways. I regularly drive from Cork to Dublin and I am in a position to state that 90% of these vehicles drive in excess of the maximum speed of which they are supposed to be capable. Who has the responsibility of enforcing speed limits for heavy goods vehicles?