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JOINT COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 24 Jan 2007

Scrutiny of EU Proposal.

We will now deal with a proposal sent to the committee for further scrutiny. COM (2006) 570 proposes the retrofitting of mirrors on heavy goods vehicles registered in the EU Community. The proposal has been referred to this committee for further scrutiny by the Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny.

I welcome Mr. Michael Ó Méalóid and Mr. Jim Ellis of the Road Safety Authority division of the Department of Transport. I draw the witnesses' attention to the fact that while members of the committee have absolute privilege this same privilege does not apply to witnesses appearing before the committee. Members are reminded of the parliamentary practice that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against any person outside the House or an official, either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. Members are also reminded that civil servants, while giving evidence to a committee, may not question or express an opinion on the merits of any Government policy or policy objective or produce or send to a committee any document in which a civil servant, official or member of the Garda Síochána questions or expresses an opinion on the merits of any Government policy or policy objective.

We have already received Mr. Ó Méalóid's submission and members will have read it. Deputies Shortall and Mitchell requested that Mr. Ó Méalóid attend the committee but they have had to leave.

Mr. Ó Méalóid, how many accidents could be prevented by the retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles? I know how they work but do you have an estimate of how many people have been killed or injured because such mirrors are not fitted?

Mr. Michael Ó Méalóid

I thank the committee for inviting us to address it and for showing an interest in this issue. It is one close to the heart of the Road Safety Authority. The authority is always happy to attend this committee to deal with any question.

I understand that between six and eight deaths per year are caused by cyclists and pedestrians having accidents with trucks due to the existence of the lateral or frontal blind spot in trucks. It would be an important start if we could prevent those deaths.

Retrofitting would be a cheap price to pay to save six or eight lives.

Mr. Ó Méalóid

We could not agree more. Everyone involved in this area of transport is in favour of this measure. The Irish Road Haulage Association is in favour of it and has been encouraging its members to retrofit their trucks with lateral and cyclops blind spot mirrors. A number of the EU member states are in favour of the measure. At the last Transport Council, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Germany made a strong case to the Commission for the inclusion of cyclops, that is frontal, mirrors in this directive and the Commission has said it will examine that proposal.

We are hopeful that the European Parliament will support the proposal. Ms Marian Harkin, MEP, has made a presentation on the issue and is interested in it. We hope the directive will apply to cyclops mirrors as well as passenger side mirrors.

I thank Mr. Ó Méalóid and Mr. Ellis for attending the committee and for their presentation to us. We are agreed that this is something which should be done in the interest of safety. We will notify the Sub-Committee on European Scrutiny and relevant groups that we have considered this proposed directive.

The joint committee adjourned at 4.20 p.m. until Wednesday, 7 February 2007.
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