I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The road haulage industry in Ireland was liberalised in the late 1980s arising from European Union directives which were adopted in the 1970s. Ireland was somewhat behind other developed western economies in introducing liberalised competition in the haulage market. One of the consequences of such a restrictive policy has been a sector that has been slower to develop than elsewhere in western Europe. We see, therefore, an industry which in large part is made up of micro enterprises. Up to 70 per cent of the sector comprises one or two man operations. In many instances, people are coming into the business without a proper business plan and it would appear that, in many cases, they live from day to day with little planning or thought for long-term viability.
The inevitable outcome is fierce competition and downward pressure on rates. I stress that there is nothing wrong with the latter provided that it is achieved as a result of efficiencies and is not done through working at cost or below cost or, indeed, by skirting the law. Recent years have seen troubled times for the sector. First, we had the collapse of Bell Lines with consequent losses to many hauliers. We then had the very serious difficulties at Dublin Port. The catalyst at the port was the major delays being experienced at port terminals leading to a drop in productivity. Equally, working conditions in the port were not good and there was a perception among hauliers that they were being treated badly.
Since then there has been some improvement in both conditions and rates. An independent facilitator brought in to my Department played a vital role in bringing the dispute to a close but also in righting many wrongs in the treatment of individual hauliers and in conditions generally in the port. I hasten to add that we are not out of the woods yet. The threat over the magnificent Tall Ships extravaganza last summer was a timely reminder of that for us all. In advance of completion of the Port Tunnel, traffic congestion in and around the port remains a problem which is adding to the reduction in productivity of hauliers using the port.
On the international front, it has also been a very difficult period for Irish hauliers. There was the disruption caused by the French drivers' strike in 1997. There were strikes by hauliers in Spain and Portugal. Subsequently, we had the problems created for hauliers by Welsh farmers who pursued their grievances with the British Government by blocking Irish hauliers at Holyhead and other Irish sea ports to the United Kingdom.
Clearly, there are problems in the sector which this Bill is, in part, addressing. On another front, colleagues will be aware that in the published Statement of Strategy of my Department, it was anticipated that a major review should be conducted into the haulage sector, including the potential for the application of intelligent transport systems, in co-operation with the industry itself, other Departments and Forfás. Following a competitive tendering process, a consortium of consultancy firms with extensive national and international expertise was appointed to carry out this review. The consultants commenced their work in July last year.
I will set out the context in which this review is being undertaken. The report of the Forfás Transport and Logistics Group published in March 1996 placed emphasis on an integrated approach to infrastructure, transport services, logistics and warehousing-distribution. It saw transport and logistics as crucial elements in improving the competitive position of Irish firms. The Forfás report made it clear that it was not enough to simply improve our capabilities in the transport and logistics area. If we were to improve our competitive position, we would have to do better than competitor economies which are seeking to enhance their capabilities. The report's assessment was quite blunt. It stated:
If Ireland fails to cope with the more demanding market and logistics environment which is rapidly emerging, exporters will lose competitiveness and market share and the longer term industrial development objectives will stand little chance of being achieved.
That is the broad policy context within which the review of the road haulage industry is being initiated. However, the serious difficulties which have emerged in recent times gave the proposal to review the sector added urgency .
It might be useful if I inform Deputies of the terms of reference for the review which I am sure they will agree are comprehensive. The mandate to the consultants was to review the road haulage industry under a number of headings and to propose a coherent strategy for the development of the industry which would encompass: a clear vision for the future development of the industry in the context of Ireland's wider economic requirements, supported by concrete aims and objectives and a clear and precise medium-term and long-term strategy for the future development of the industry, identifying in particular those strategic matters which need to be urgently addressed. The development of the strategy should take account of the fact that the road haulage sector is not a single homogeneous industry, but a range of discrete subsets serving different market requirements.
The consultants were also mandated to identify any institutional and other constraints to the effective implementation of the strategy and propose measures to effectively address those constraints.
I am glad to say the report is now nearing completion. This is the first major review of the structure of the Irish road haulage industry ever undertaken. The outcome will provide an informed basis on which to plan for the future of a sector which, in itself, is a major contributor to the Irish economy and is vital to the interests of Irish industry as a whole. To propose action on the basis of anything less would be irresponsible. This is the background against which we are embarking on this Bill. Inevitably, the Bill will not address all the issues. It will, however, put in place significant statutory measures of concern to the sector. I will give a general outline of the main objectives of the Bill.
The Bill is both timely and desirable in the context of existing forces impacting on the road transport sector. The main elements of the Bill are the introduction of a licensing regime for both haulage and bus operators involving the issue of licences of up to five years' duration, instead of the current three or five year maximum duration; the replacement of a previously cumbersome vehicle plating procedure, involving my Department, the Revenue Commissioners and the Garda, with a transport disc regime provided solely by my Department and the application of that disc regime to the passenger sector for the first time; measures designed to ensure compliance by out of State hauliers with Irish road transport legislation; the introduction of a requirement on both haulage and passenger operators to provide adequate parking space and operating facilities for the vehicles to be operated under their licences; the amendment of the provisions of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, to provide for consignor liability in the case of overweight vehicles; the amendment of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, to extend from five miles to 25 kilometres – over 15 miles – the distance a driver can be directed to a weighbridge for weighing; and to bring in other changes of a technical nature to the Road Transport Acts, 1933 to 1986.
It would be useful at this stage to outline the background to the regime for haulage and passenger operator licences. We are not dealing here with route licences, which are a matter to be considered under the Road Transport Act, 1932, but with those licences which allow access to the profession of road passenger operator.
The most recent amendment to the Road Transport Acts was the Road Transport Act, 1986. This Act and a series of EU directives which came into effect over the past decade have amended the basis for admission to the road haulage and bus operator sectors. The directives also began the process of harmonising the regime pertaining to the regulation of the haulage and bus transport sectors throughout the EU and liberalisation of access to those sectors.
Prior to the passage of the Road Transport Act, 1986, access to the road haulage industry in Ireland was restricted on a quantitative basis which effectively excluded prospective enterprises from setting up in business. The opening up of access was prompted partly by domestic policy considerations, such as the need for growth in the sector and the desirability of a more competitive environment to provide the manufacturing and trading arms of the economy with modern, professionally-run services at reasonable cost. The development of a common European Community policy aimed at allowing open competition on a quality control basis gave an added impetus to the liberalisation process.
Access to the road haulage and bus operator sectors is now regulated solely on the basis of qualitative requirements set down in European Union directives. Entrants to the business must satisfy the licensing authorities in member states that they are financially sound, of good repute and under competent management. It should be noted that there has been further raising and harmonising of the standards for access by virtue of a directive adopted in 1998. The new stricter criteria will take effect for new entrants in October this year. Under the directives any person who meets the criteria for access must be issued with a licence. Currently, both the criteria for obtaining a licence and the issuing of a licence are set down in statutory instruments made pursuant to the European Communities Act, 1972. It is intended to continue that arrangement and to consolidate it by revoking the licensing procedures in primary legislation and incorporating them in comprehensive regulations following enactment of this Bill. This should make it easier for intending applicants to ascertain the statutory licensing requirements.
Existing enterprises are periodically assessed for their continuing adherence to these standards. Until now, this reassessment has been automatically triggered on a three or five year basis – three in the case of domestic haulage operators, five in the case of international hauliers and all bus operators. The aim is that all enterprises will obtain a five year licence with a requirement to renew after that period. It is thought that this would be more rigorous and effective than a continuous regime which was mooted in the 1997 Transport Bill. This change in policy has the approval of the main representative organisations in both the haulage and passenger sectors.
Section 13 is designed to ensure that breaches of the Road Transport Acts or regulations relating to the carriage of merchandise or passengers under the European Communities Act, 1972, can be prosecuted against out of State carriers in the course of a journey within the State. This is achieved by arresting any driver who a garda has reason to believe is committing or has committed an offence and who in the opinion of the garda has not given a satisfactory address for service of summons. The Bill defines what constitutes a satisfactory address as an address at which the person will be for a sufficient length of time for it to be possible to serve that person with a summons, or an address of some other specified person who will accept a summons on the first person's behalf. In such cases, the address of a firm of solicitors in the State which undertakes to accept a summons on behalf of the driver will satisfy this provision. The section is similar to a provision in the United Kingdom Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984, which is used extensively by UK police authorities to deal with out of State hauliers in breach of road traffic and road transport legislation in Britain.
In the case of a driver of a vehicle being arrested under this section, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967, as amended by section 3 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1997, come into effect. The following is the procedure: the arrested driver is brought to the nearest Garda station; he is brought as soon as practicable before the District Court of the district in which the person has been arrested or he is released on bail to appear at the next appropriate sitting of the District Court; bail can be set by the station sergeant in accordance with section 31 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967; bail can be in the form of recognisance or a sum of money, and it is lodged in the relevant District Court to the court clerk; and if the driver fails to appear before the court at the appointed time an application can be made under the relevant District Court rule to entreat the recognisance or to forfeit the sum of money.
Another initiative in this area is the proposal in section 16 to introduce on-the-spot fines in respect of offences under the Road Transport Acts or under regulations made pursuant to the European Communities Act, 1972, relating to road transport. This section is an enabling one and it will be a matter for the Minister to prescribe the class of offences which will be dealt with under this section.
A transport officer or a garda who has reasonable grounds for believing that a person is committing an offence under the regulations may issue a notice to that person stating that the person is alleged to have committed the offence; the person may make a payment of £150 without delay to the inspector; and a prosecution will not be pursued if the payment is made to the inspector without delay.
This provision is significantly different from the existing on-the-spot fines as we know them. The current system is an invitation to pay a certain amount of money within 21 days and, if payment is made, no prosecution will ensue. The system proposed here is an invitation to pay a sum of £150, without delay, to either a garda or a transport officer. If the driver refuses to pay and does not have a satisfactory address for service of summons, the provisions of section 13 can come into play. If the driver has a satisfactory address for service of summons and does not pay the fine he can be prosecuted in the normal way.
The fine is currently set at £150. However, the Minister may vary this amount by regulation at any time in order to take account of inflation or if it is felt that a fine set at this level is not a sufficient deterrent or that the offences being committed demand greater fines. Flexibility is provided in the Bill as to currencies and the methods of payment which will be accepted.
An important feature of the Bill which is timely are the provisions of section 17 which amend the Road Traffic Act, 1961, in two ways. First, section 12 of the Road Traffic Act, 1961, is amended to include the consignor of the load as one of the persons liable to prosecution in the case of overweight vehicles. The section also provides for two good defence clauses which are common sense. I am pleased to bring forward this provision.
The current statutory position under the Road Traffic Acts is that only the driver and the owner of the vehicle are liable to prosecution for overloading. It is my belief, however, that drivers are often pressurised to carry overweight loads given the competitive nature of the haulage sector and the possibility of losing business if they refuse to carry the loads consigned. By making the consignor also liable to prosecution, the Bill will reduce the pressure on drivers to carry overweight loads. Clearly it is not in the best interests of either the driver or the owner of the vehicle to carry overweight loads. First, there is the road safety aspect, the danger to the driver and other road users is inevitably increased from overweight loads, second, there is the question of increased damage to road infrastructures and third, overloading exposes expensive equipment to a burden for which it has not been designed, with long-term damage as a possible consequence.
The second amendment to the Road Traffic Act is the proposal to extend from five miles to 25 kilometres, about 15 miles, the distance a driver can be directed to a weighbridge for weighing. I have long been of the view that some drivers regularly use unsuitable back roads in order to avoid known weighbridges. I hope this new provision will put a stop to this practice and, importantly, will be an additional incentive for drivers, owners and consignors to avoid carrying overweight loads.
A provision I am also pleased with is contained in section 11 which requires that all licensees, both haulage and passenger operators, must provide adequate parking spaces and operating premises for the vehicles operating under the licence. The objective of this provision is twofold. First, it is an effort to ensure that vehicles operating under a licence have adequate parking space. The provision is not designed to compulsorily require the owner to park the vehicle at the premises, nor does it prevent owners-drivers parking vehicles at unsuitable areas such as housing estates. This is best achieved by local authority by-laws. However, it ensures there are adequate parking facilities available at the site.
The second objective is to ensure that there is a premises at which the licensee is located. In recent years there has been a tendency, albeit by a very small number of licensees, to have accommodation addresses. These addresses can often be the offices of a solicitor or accountant where visits to inspect tachograph charts can be difficult and frustrating. There is a concern also that persons refused licences elsewhere in the European Union can apply for licences in the State and use accommodation addresses to facilitate their applications. The section also provides for a three year breathing space for existing licensees to meet the requirements for adequate parking spaces and operating premises.
Regarding the provisions in the Bill relating to transport discs, the objective is to establish a one-stop-shop for the issuing of such discs. In the past vehicle plating was regarded as overly bureaucratic by the haulage sector. For instance, the plating procedure involved the following for each vehicle: the operator obtained his licence with the vehicles stated on the licence, he then went to the Revenue Commissioners with the licence document to pay for the plate and then took the receipt to the PSV officer in the local designated Garda station where he obtained the vehicle plate. This procedure was rightly deemed cumbersome in this day and age. Subsequently, my Department, by means of a statutory regulation, reduced the number of transactions to two by accepting payment for the plate along with the licence fee, thus removing the Revenue Commissioners from the loop.
The new provisions provide that my Department will accept the fee and issue the new transport discs. Transport discs in respect of each licensee will be generated from the computer records of vehicles in my Department and issued directly to the licensee. As each disc is expected to last on a vehicle windscreen for five years it will be made of a durable material. The disc will contain relevant licensing and vehicle details to aid enforcement of the legislation governing licensing. A notable feature of the transport disc regime is that it will apply to the passenger sector for the first time. It has been the policy of the passenger operator associations to have an official regime for plating buses put in place. The new transport disc meets that demand.
Another significant element of the Bill is contained in section 9 which amends section 36 of the Road Transport Act, 1933, the principal Act, relating to the prohibition on unlicensed haulage. The existing provision provided that it was not lawful for any person to enter into an agreement for the carriage for reward of merchandise by any other person unless that person was licensed. This prohibition has proved less than effective as the proving of an offence could require proof of the existence of a formal written contract between the consignor and the haulier. The provision in the Bill will enable prosecutions to be brought on the basis of advice notes or evidence of the driver or operator. This provision is expected to be effective in the overall fight against unlicensed haulage within the State.
An opportunity is being availed of in the Bill to address a difficulty that has arisen in relation to one of the CIE salaried superannuation schemes. The legal basis for the existence of the Salaried Officers and Clerks (Great Northern Railway, County Donegal Railway and the Irish Railway Clearing House) Superannuation Scheme, 1977, is currently in doubt because the order enabling it was based on section 14 of the Transport Act, 1950, which was repealed without a saver by the Transport (Reorganisation of Córas Iompar Éireann) Act, 1986. Section 18 of the Bill provides a solution to the difficulty by restoring the status quo ante to orders made before the passing of the Transport (Reorganisation of Córas Iompar Éireann) Act, 1986, by deeming them to continue in force as if made under section 25 of that Act. In this way the doubt as to the legal basis of the superannuation scheme will be removed.
The Bill contains a number of other minor provisions of a technical nature such as amendment of section 8 of the Road Transport Act, 1971, as inserted by the Road Transport Act, 1986, to facilitate the appropriate recognition in Ireland for licences, permits or authorisations issued by other states arising out of international agree ments to which the European Communities is a party, or such authorisations issued by other member states arising out of acts of the European Communities. The updating takes account of liberalisation of haulage markets within the European Union and beyond.
Section 10 amends section 5 of the Road Transport Act, 1978, to include international road transport agreements entered into by the European Communities or any acts of the European Communities. The section provides for the exemption of specified classes of international transport by road from the licensing, transport disc regime and the prohibition on the importation of vehicles provision of the Road Transport Acts. Section 12 creates an offence of falsifying or altering a licence document and of using a falsified or altered licence document for the carriage of goods or passengers for reward. Section 21 provides for an extensive schedule of repeals in order to revoke spent or replaced sections of the many Road Transport Acts.
The Bill is a significant step forward in road transport operator licensing and, in particular, brings in a very important set of amendments to the Road Traffic Act, 1961. I commend the Bill to the House.
