David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 1022: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to nominate a number of people to sign off on certificates of safety for travelling funfairs; the number of such certificates in force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14817/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Planning and Development (Certification of Fairground Equipment) Regulations 2003 put in place procedures and checks to ensure that funfair equipment cannot be operated in Ireland without a valid safety certificate. Under those Regulations, the requirement to have safety certificates came into force on 1 March 2004. Responsibility for obtaining a certificate lies with the organisers of funfairs and/or owners of fairground equipment.

Applications for certificates of safety must be made to an authorised person designated by the Minister and a separate application must be made for each piece of fairground equipment. Certificates are valid for a period of up to 14 months.

When the regulations came into force, three persons were authorised under the Regulations to carry out inspections and grant certificates of safety. These appointments resulted from expressions of interest being sought by my Department for suitably qualified and experienced personnel. My Department will shortly advertise seeking further expressions of interest with a view to appointing additional authorised persons.

The regulations provide that when a certificate of safety is granted by an authorised person, a copy of the certificate is sent, inter alia, to my Department. In 2006 a total of 513 certificates of safety were received in my Department; none has been received to date in 2007.