Question on maximum vehicle height for lorries transporting fodder

Dáil Question
No: 200

To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will consider reversing the change of maximum vehicle height of 4.65m in view of the fact that the vast majority of lorries transporting fodder will have their loads significantly cut, therefore increasing the cost of bales for farmers and cause undue hardship; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Thomas Pringle.
* For WRITTEN answer on Wednesday, 6th November, 2013.

Ref No:
47288/13 Proof: 229
Answered by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport
Leo Varadkar

REPLY
Statutory Instrument 366 of 2008 – Road Traffic (Construction and Use of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulations, 2008 sets the maximum height limit of vehicles in this country at 4.65 metres.

Following public consultation undertaken prior to the completion of the Regulations, the intention to introduce a 4.65m limit was announced in January 2007. Following representations from the industry, it was agreed that a five year derogation from that limit would apply to vehicles registered, licensed or in use prior to 1st November 2008. The derogation was introduced to allow a five-year period within which vehicles operating at heights in excess of the new limits could be withdrawn from use in Ireland or to allow for the necessary height reductions by operators. This derogation expired on 31st October 2013.

In relation to the concerns of the farming industry specifically, those concerns have only been raised in the past number of weeks and were not raised with either my Department or with me by those bodies prior to that. Given the lead-in time that this height limit has had, extending the derogation would have the effect of penalising those operators who have adjusted their fleet to ensure compliance with this well flagged law, while rewarding those that did not.

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