Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I concur with the points both Senators have made. We would not be able to place such a heavy dependence on our railways unless we had the safety issue under control. As regards vehicles striking bridges, Senator Mansergh made the point well; damaged road bridges are a matter for the relevant local authority, while Iarnród Éireann is responsible for rail bridges.

I am introducing two offences because I want to make such bridge strikes a serious offence. A person driving a vehicle that strikes a bridge will be guilty of an offence if there was a road sign indicating the height of the restricted bridge. The second offence relates to a failure to comply with a requirement to notify immediately the occurrence of a bridge strike, for obvious reasons.

In or around this time last year, following a normal inspection of our road bridge network, it was brought to the Department's attention that an abnormal load had struck the Rathcoole bridge leaving it in a dangerous condition. I do not know how many days elapsed before that incident was picked up by the inspectors but there could have been a serious incident as a result.

Senator Wilson brought to my attention the fact that some of the old stone and granite bridges may not meet the height requirements for new heavy goods vehicles. A number of HGVs have struck such bridges and are able to drive off, but other such vehicles can get caught underneath.

In addition to the provisions of the Bill, my Department will also be undertaking other measures because there are better ways of preventing bridge strikes than relying solely on road traffic signs. Earlier, I referred to technical developments in this regard, including the use of the GPS and Galileo systems. Hopefully, such systems will be fitted to vehicles to act as preventative measures.

I ask the House to approve this amendment in order to permit the two offences I cited to be inserted in the legislation. In addition, I am giving an undertaking to examine the other matters to which the Senators referred.