Seanad report: It has been discovered in recent days that for almost a year the Minister for Transport had not had the power to grant road haulage licences, Martin Cullen said. The Attorney General had also advised that he, as Minister, did not have a power to issue road-passenger operator licences under a statutory instrument made in 1991.
According to the Attorney General's office, such a power must be provided for in primary legislation. Noting that there were no safety implications arising from the absence of powers in relation to the issuing of road-haulage licences, Mr Cullen said the problem had arisen because of the inadvertent repeal of a section of a 1986 Act by an order made almost a year ago.
The correction, now being made in the Road Traffic and Transportation Bill, which was before the House, would be retrospective, he told Derek McDowell (Lab).
The Bill, an emergency measure, passed all stages.
The Minister said the immediate focus of the Bill as to road traffic was to support the introduction of legislation that would further strengthen drink-driving provisions and improve the enforcement of drink-driving legislation generally.
These provisions related to a proposal to take away the necessity in a Garda station for a garda to form an opinion that a person had consumed an intoxicant, in advance of administering an evidential test, and, a proposal to provide that nurses could take blood or urine samples at a Garda station.
A typographical error in the 2006 Road Traffic Act which could have a limited impact on the operation of mandatory alcohol testing was also being corrected. This error related to only a small number of cases where a person refused to give a roadside breath sample and where they were arrested for the purpose of providing an evidential test.
Urging the withdrawal of the Privacy Bill, Joe O'Toole (Ind) said recent events, which could not have been disclosed had such legislation been in place, would have deprived politics and the people of important information.
"We have learnt many things in the past week or so, during which time whatever doubts we may have had about this legislation have been exacerbated and re-enforced. Will the leader [ of the House] tell us if the Government intends to withdraw the Bill or to push ahead with it? We need to look again at what the Bill will introduce . . . it would be better if it were withdrawn and the Government brought forward a new Bill at another time."
House leader Mary O'Rourke said she would make inquiries as to what exactly the position was.