James Heffernan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I thank him for bringing this important legislation before us. Like previous speakers, I welcome this Bill. It seems road safety is a theme which is discussed every time the Minister comes to the House and there is always commendable cross-party support which is a delight to behold for a change.

This Bill is designed to reform the testing system for the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles and to transfer responsibility for the issuing of driving licences from local authorities to the Road Safety Authority. This will bring a level of consistency and uniformity which may not have been in place heretofore. The aim of this legislation is to reduce the number of road deaths in Ireland by reducing the number of unsafe commercial vehicles. As outlined in his contribution and as alluded to by Senator O'Sullivan, currently commercial vehicles are involved in nearly one fifth, one in five, of all fatal road accidents in Ireland.