Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Do the vehicles jarveys drive count as passenger vehicles? That is a good question. It would not be a good idea to allow vehicles that travel at speeds under 40km/h to be exempt. From a competition point of view it would be unfair. One would be saying that this entire class of vehicle that can travel very slowly does not need a licence but that anybody who has a modern bus or coach or mini-bus must apply for a licence. One would create a category of slow vehicles which could be operated without a licence and this would be unfair to the existing industry.

In addition, other issues apply. If we state that a person must be licensed to drive a bus because we do not want to give a bus licence to a person who has been convicted of kidnapping, for example, and we do not believe that person should be allowed to drive children around in a bus, we cannot then say it is all right if the vehicle moves slowly. I do not see the logic of that.