asked the Minister for the Environment if, in the interest of road safety, he will introduce mandatory regulations so that laminated non-splintering windscreens are fitted to all new road vehicles.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers - Laminated Glass Windscreens.
10.
Regulations at present require that windscreens be made of safety glass. In practice, this means either laminated or toughened glass. Most new road vehicles, in fact, have laminated windscreens. A proposal relating to the use of safety glass in vehicles is under consideration by the EEC. The points at issue have not yet been resolved. At this stage, it would not be appropriate to amend existing Irish regulations.
I could not catch the description given by the Minister to the second type of glass other than the laminated type.
Toughened.
Is it not a fact that the toughened glass to which he has referred shatters on impact and scatters and that a number of people have had very serious eye injuries through involvement in motor accidents where this toughened glass was the type used in their cars, rather than laminated glass? This laminated glass, I understand, is maintained intact after impact and minimises the possibility of serious eye injury. Has the Minister any statistics on the number of people who have suffered either loss of sight or serious damage to their eyesight arising from the splintering of glass in car accidents?
No, I have not statistics about such injuries. Most vehicles in Ireland today are fitted with laminated glass windscreens, including Ford, Toyota, Datsun, Fiat, Volkswagen, British Leyland, Talbot, Vauxhall, Opel, Citroen, Peugeot and Renault. Virtually all the new vehicles on the market made by these companies are fitted with laminated glass windscreens. In some cases — Datsun and Renault in their cheaper models, British Leyland for the Mini-Metro and the Maestro, fit toughened safety glass in the windscreens, but the vast majority have now changed to laminated glass.
The Minister did not make a list of the vehicles which do not have laminated glass. It would be much more helpful if he did. Why is he reluctant to introduce our own regulations making it mandatory on motor assembly companies to use laminated glass? I do not want to be rising every few minutes, but would point that the Deputy who put down this question had a sad experience of being involved in a motor accident in which he nearly lost the sight of his eyes because laminated glass was not used in his vehicle. Why should we have to wait for the EEC to make some decision in this matter? Surely we can use our own discretion. There is a clear need for regulations of this kind. Would it be possible to introduce such under the Road Safety Bill which is at present on the Order Paper and will be coming before the House fairly soon?
One of the reasons is that this area will be covered by the EEC directive on which there is consultation and it is hoped that a decision will be made on it in the near future. The argument that toughened glass is perhaps less safe is one on which there is considerable disagreement by the experts. Therefore, I would not like to make the decision in this House to bring in a special regulation for car builders to use only laminated glass when the experts cannot agree as to which is the safer. I would prefer this debate to continue in the EEC and a decision to be made. Then all cars will have to have the same type of glass and the experts will have to come to a decision, one way or the other.
Finally, could I ask if it is the opinion of the Minister and of the officials in his Department that they are not satisfied that laminated glass is safer and better to have in one's car than the alternative toughened glass?
The Deputy is twisting what I said. I said that there is disagreement between experts in this area.
The experts in the Minister's Department?
The experts in the EEC.
Has the Minister no experts in his Department?
I have several experts in my Department, but they are engaged in this debate at EEC level.
What is their opinion?
Their opinion would seem to be obviously, as I have read out——
Why should we not go ahead and do our own thing?
Because we have joined the EEC.
There is not to be an argument on it.
As the Deputy knows, in so many areas we have to await the outcome of the EEC debates.
Eleven people have lost their sight already because of accidents.
We must await the outcome of the EEC debates.
That is typical.