Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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511. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his Department has investigated international best practice in terms of evaluating the relative safety merits of different bus models; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9022/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Directive 2007/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council established an approval system for vehicles within the EU. This system ensures that a vehicle must be manufactured in compliance with a wide range of safety standards before it can be placed on the market. This ‘type-approval’ system is periodically updated to account for improvements in safety standards and to allow advanced safety features to become mandatory requirements. Amendments to Directive 2007/46/EC are scrutinised, evaluated and voted upon by a number of different EU-level technical committees and working groups attended by representatives from the State.

The type-approval system is transposed into Irish law by SI No. 158 of 2009 – the European Communities (Road Vehicles: Type-Approval) Regulations 2009. These regulations have been amended several times to account for the continually improving safety standards that have become obligatory for vehicles in the European fleet.