Vol. 468 No. 4
802 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the reason trading at the side of the road is forbidden to some persons but not to others in view of the large amounts of trading carried out in areas which are causing a traffic hazard. [15037/96]
Trading at the side of the road is regulated by the Casual Trading Act, 1995, which came into force on 1 May last. The primary purpose of this Act is to achieve greater decentralisation, efficiency and flexibility in the regulation of casual trading by local authorities than was possible under the less flexible regime provided by the Casual Trading Act, 1980. The principal reforms contained in the 1995 Act are to devolve the licensing function from the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to the local authorities and to provide for social welfare requirements with respect to the issue of casual trading licences; to provide for the use of by-laws by the local authorities as the method of regulating and controlling casual trading, thus facilitating greater flexibility and efficiency in regulating casual trading; to limit the list of casual trading activities excluded from the scope of regulation under the 1980 Act to (i) selling by a licensed auctioneer; (ii) door-to-door selling and (iii) charity sales.
