Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Transport has power to declare offences to be fixed-charge offences for the purpose of enforcement under section 103 of the Road Traffic Act. The purpose of these amendments is to amend section 14 of the Bill to extend the range of offences that can be declared to be fixed-charge offences, and to provide that offences under the Road Transport Acts or any statutory instruments implementing certain European legislation can now also be deemed to be fixed-charge offences, subject to regulations being made by the Minister. These offences relate to road haulage and passenger transport sectors. This would enable departmental transport offices — soon to be part of the Road Safety Authority — to issue fixed-charge notices to hauliers or bus operators who are stopped at checkpoints and are found to be breaking road transport licensing laws.

I intend to table two further amendments to this section on Report Stage. One is a minor technical amendment, while the other will rectify an omission in the provisions of the Bill before us. I believe these amendments will be welcomed by the sector as minor offences should be dealt with by fixed charges and penalties rather than in court.