There are two proposals before us for consideration. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is the lead Department in both cases. The first proposal is a draft regulation to amend the current tachograph regulation COM (2011) 451. The proposed regulation aims to amend current legislation on the tachograph system to improve its security, effectiveness and efficiency by replacing the current 1985 tachograph regulation, making fraud more difficult and reducing the administrative burden by making full use of new technologies and introducing a number of new regulatory measures.
The Department has indicated that Ireland supports the Commission's overall objective but has some concerns about the proposal. Some concerns have been addressed in ongoing negotiations on the proposal such as the issue of merging the driving licences with the driver card, which has now been left out of the proposal. However, the Department is also concerned that penalties be of the highest categories applicable in the member state for infringements of road transport legislation and believes that this is a matter for member states to decide.
It is proposed that this proposal warrants further scrutiny and it is proposed to write to the Department requesting further details on the extent to which the objectives and concerns expressed in the information note have been addressed as a result of the December meeting of the Council of Ministers and, in particular, what progress, if any, can be made on the provision regarding penalties on which there appears to be no agreement to date. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The second proposal is a draft regulation establishing the connecting Europe facility COM (2011) 655. This proposal is part of a package of related measures which includes proposals for revised guidelines for transport, energy and telecommunications. We consider the Commission's proposal for revised guidelines for development of the trans-European transport network and we issue the contribution encompassing our views to the Commission on that measure. The current proposal would see the establishment of a financing instrument, called a connecting Europe facility, which proposes to provide €3.17 billion to upgrade Europe's transport infrastructure. However, the Commission estimates that delivery of the key upgrades envisaged would require an investment of €250 billion. Therefore, the majority of the funding will need to come from member states. Taken together these proposals have significant implications for Ireland. It is proposed that this proposal does not warrant further scrutiny at this stage. However, in light of their significance, it is proposed to ask the Department to keep this committee informed of the developments on the related proposals, COM (2011) 650 and COM (2011) 655. Is that agreed? Agreed.