Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

In general, I agree with Senator Barrett's comments on European attitudes to road haulage in particular. It is very much the view of the core European countries in particular that for environmental and other reasons we should push freight off the road and back onto the railways and canals. That is good policy and it would make sense that we would do that for many reasons, but it may not be a practical policy in this country where we have an undeveloped railway network which we cannot continue to afford to subsidise in the way we do now. We are also an island nation and the policies we may need to apply to road haulage may be different in this country than in the European core. Senator Barrett's general point in that regard is valid.

With regard to the amendment which would remove the reference to the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 from the list of serious convictions or offences which must be notified to the Minister under section 2 in regard to good repute of applicants or licence holders, acceptance of the amendment would mean that I could no longer consider offences under the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997. The Act contains offences such as assault, threats to kill, syringe attacks, poisoning, coercion, harassment, endangerment, false imprisonment and child abduction. It is important that the Minister, or the body, in awarding a road transport licence should be aware whether the applicant has been convicted of child abduction, for example. Unfortunately, it is the case that when human trafficking does occur, it very often occurs in the back of trucks. The same applies, unfortunately, in many cases to child abduction. That is the reason for the provision and why I would not like to see it removed.

Let us always bear in mind when it comes to such provisions that it is about notification. The person applying for a licence must notify the Minister of the offences. It does not mean an automatic ban by any means. The Minister just needs to take it into account. If it is a minor offence that occurred a long time ago, I do not think any reasonable Minister would refuse a licence and I do not think the District Court would uphold such a decision. The courts have consistently stood over the right of a person to earn a living. However, in the case of child abduction, they probably would not. They would probably agree with the Minister's view. Perhaps when we carry out a thorough review of the legislation we might refine the offences a bit more and specifically mention such crimes as child abduction rather than the Act in question. However, given the deadline which I am up against, I ask the Senator to withdraw the amendment.