I thank the Minister for facilitating what I consider to be a very important matter for a large number of petrol retailers right across the country. May I say at the outset that I support the Dangerous Substances Act, 1972, and I believe it is very necessary to have strict criteria for the transportation and storage of dangerous substances including motor fuels. The Minister's regulations I welcome as necessary. We must have safeguards and standards and in so far as these regulations under the Dangerous Substances Act regulate new modern retail petrol stations or outlets they are necessary and in my view most desirable.
My dismay arises at the way in which these regulations are being implemented by local authorities, and the fact that most old petrol pump stations and longstanding retail outlets find it physically impossible to meet the regulations as laid down. I can tell the House that of 97 petrol stations or petrol pump outlets in my county only 20 have qualified to receive licences to continue on trading.
My county council's hands are tied as there is the statutory obligation to implement Statutory Instrument 311 of 1979. As I see it, thousands of retailers of petroleum products face the prospect of their livelihoods being taken from them. I appeal to the Minister to amend the regulations or introduce new regulations which differentiate between new retail outlets and retail outlets trading succesfully for the past 55 or 60 years.
In any rural village or town in the country, the majority of outlets are kerbside petrol pumps. How can these traders meet the regulations which say that the pump should be sited 4.25 metres away from the public road? How can these people locate their petrol pumps to meet the regulation which says that the pumps should be situated 4 metres away from a doorway or a window, when you consider that the average width of a pathway in any town or village is normally five or six feet wide? This is the crux of the problem.
It was not the intention of this House or the Oireachtas in 1972 when the Dangerous Substances Bill was being passed that 75 or 80 per cent of the petrol traders in this country should be forced out of business by these new regulations. I accept that we should legislate for improved standards but no Member of the Oireachtas would or did subscribe to the situation where regulations no matter how desirable would force a family business to close down or even relocate for that matter, as to relocate is very costly.
I appeal to the Minister to lift the air of gloom and uncertainty which at present hangs over the heads of thousands of family businesses whose livelihoods depend on the sale of motor fuels. No one has suggested that this is a dangerous business, dangerous to the vendor, the motorist or indeed the passing public. As far as I can see, taking my own county into account in particular, the only fire or incident at a petrol pump was a small fire which occurred on a fair day in Abbeyleix about 1943 or 1944 when a pipeline from an old petrol tanker to a petrol pump at McCoys, which is long gone since, ruptured and a fire started.
When you think of the usage and the volume of motor fuels consumed in recent years, the fact that there had been no dangerous incidents reported, certainly to my knowledge, is an indication that this is not a dangerous practice. While we should and must have stringent regulations, and enforce the highest standards, the incidents at petrol or retail outlets are so rare as of themselves not to warrant special introduction of regulatory standards. I ask the Minister in the interests of justice and fair play to amend those ministerial regulations, to enable local authorities to adopt a flexible approach, which has the effect of licensing existing outlets but with the maximum safety standards obtainable on the particular location.
I hope the new regulations would be applied not only with fair play but with common sense. I have read through the regulations, both the old statutory instruments and indeed the new ones as announced last Friday. I am not altogether sure about them and I would hope that the Minister will clarify the situation for me. There are three main problems for the ordinary man in the street who is trading and, making a living from the sale of petrol. I suggest that the Seven Sisters or the multinational oil companies would prefer to have just one petrol retail outlet in every town or every county as they do not want to be bothered supplying the small family retail outlet or garage but if their business was being affected they would certainly have kicked up more of a row.
There are three points in the existing regulations: first, the regulation requires that in order to offload fuel from a tanker into an underground tank one requires an area of land for off-street parking for the lorry. That is absolutely out if you are talking about every town and village in the country. I would hope that there would be some flexibility on that. Second, the resiting of the pumps 4 metres away from the kerb, and, again, that is impracticable in most towns and villages.
If the Minister persists with these regulations, I would like to hear his proposals for compensating people. In our society there is provision for compensation where the State requires people to give up their livelihood. Out of 97 people trading in the petrol business in my county, only 20 qualified for licences. That underlines the gravity of the situation.
I accept that the Minister did not bring in these regulations in order to impose hardship on families. I accept the need for the highest safety standards but with the accident reporting mechanism which the Department have they know what danger exists. While I accept that fire officers and county councils should endeavour to ensure that the maximum number of safety standards and regulations are met, in instances where it is physically impossible by virtue of lack of space, people's livelihoods should be ensured. There should be some degree of flexibility to allow them to continue in business. I appeal to the Minister to look sympathetically at the plight of the hundreds of petrol retailers.
