Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are concerns about the lack of adequate regulation for road haulage in Ireland and I have raised the fact that road haulage gets a special tax relief with the Minister for Finance and others. This relief is on the purchase of diesel at a time a carbon tax is being brought in and many others are being asked to pay more for fuel. The relief has been increased in next year's budget. In early December, the road haulage sector invited a number of Fine Gael Members to a patrons' reception. It is an unusual and strange framing for this. The Government needs to consider a more robust and regulated relationship with the road haulage industry and particularly engage on the issue of heavy goods vehicles, HGVs.

HGVs comprise 3% of the European vehicle fleet and 7% of the driven kilometres across Europe but are involved in 18% of fatal accidents. Those are figures from 2008. According to more recent figures, more than 4,000 people have been killed in crashes with trucks and HGVs and of those fatalities in excess of 1,000 were vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. A friend of mine was killed by a HGV on the quays in Dublin a few years ago. The approach so far has seemed to be more roads. There are some European regulations and I am sure the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Europe, will comment on the new regulations due to come into effect on 1 September 2020 for a new design of cab for HGVs. Will she press to ensure they are the only kind of vehicle we see on our streets and moving through the city? There has been a long push on the issue of blind spots. Many people will have seen the shocking video from the UK circulating this week about a blind spot in a truck where a car was not seen. I think it was on the A40. There is a concern that cars are obliged to have clear vision but HGVs are not. The lead-in on the EU regulation is up to 2028, which is an extraordinary and dangerously long period for action on this. The Minister of State will also be aware that all new vehicles should be required to have intelligent speed assistance technology because given the fact that the blind spots have been addressed too slowly, speed is one of the factors we can address and it is one of the issues that contributes to the large number of fatalities involving HGVs.

On the issue of toll roads and bypasses, there are safety concerns because people feel they cannot allow their children to cycle or they cannot walk safely because of the number of HGVs going through small towns. In many cases, the response is another bypass and another road, even in areas where there are already many roads. For example, there is discussion of a bypass of Slane yet the M1 is nearby. In many cases, drivers go through Slane because they are made responsible for paying the tolls by their employer. In the road haulage sector in which drivers are underpaid, and where terms and conditions are not as strong as they should be for them, all moneys matter. Drivers are avoiding the toll in Drogheda by taking a route off the M1 onto the N2 and going through Slane. Some people have talked about no tolls but that may not be an option. If there was an annual toll or fee attached to the HGV not payable by the driver, who may pass once or twice through this country and through other countries, instead of an instance-by-instance fee, there would no longer be an incentive for HGVs to avoid tolls and take narrower routes. Every day 2,000 HGVs pass through Slane. A large number of those HGVs do not need to pass through but do so to avoid tolls. I am looking for an overhaul of the toll system and a new approach. It is not always a question of new roads but of incentives for those on the roads and how we manage our toll system.