Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I compliment the Minister for introducing this new section. The Minister will issue specific guidelines to local authorities to ensure there is total consistency throughout the country. The trading regulations are currently implemented in an inconsistent manner. I refer to the long acre of sales, for example — the new phenomenon of selling cars on the side of the road. I am not sure whether this matter needs to be brought to the attention of the Department of Transport or the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

There used to be legislation that prohibited trading along main carriageways, such as national primary and secondary routes. A significant proportion of the legislation that has been passed by these Houses over the years has to be enforced by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I presume the Department sometimes finds it difficult to keep abreast of the various regulations. I recall the introduction of a Bill some years ago — I am not sure whether I was in this House at the time — to prohibit a form of trading that was being quite extensively pursued. Trading is taking place in home produce, which is fair enough, but I am not sure whether cars should be sold in the same way.

When I was coming to Dublin yesterday, I saw three or four cars being sold at various areas of greenery. Nobody controls the ownership of such cars. If one wants to buy one of these cars, one has to telephone a number displayed on it. When the person selling the car arrives, one does not get any background information about the car — one does not learn about regulations or the condition of the car. One does not even know if the person selling the car is genuine. While I have not been contacted by legitimate traders about this matter, I imagine their business is being affected by it.

When the Minister travels around the country he probably sees cars being sold at dangerous corners. When he gets a chance to examine the regulations on Report Stage perhaps he can deal with the problem in this new section, which deals with casual trading. Local authorities should be able, by means of by-laws or otherwise, to control the use of sidings and sections of roundabouts for the sale of cars. I even came across the sale of a large cruiser boat on the side of the road in County Mayo. We do not want to be too prohibitive — I have no objection to people selling their cars in front of their own houses, or near their own property, because they have an entitlement to do so. In such circumstances, at least one knows who is selling the product one is buying and one can contact that person if there is a problem.

I do not want to further complicate this legislation. The Minister and his officials are doing an excellent job of tweaking this comprehensive Bill to see how far they can develop it. I ask the Minister to examine the older legislation which relates to trading on major roads in advance of Report Stage. Perhaps some of the existing regulations can be strengthened to empower the local authorities to control the ongoing problem of trading on national roads.