Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-03-Speech-3-096"
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"en.19991103.7.3-096"2
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"Mr President, I want to address primarily the trainee doctors issue. But I want to make a few points before I deal with that.
First of all, the original directive excluded six million workers from its remit. It seems to me that was excessive and unfair. I cannot see how you can make a distinction between trainee doctors who are fatigued, truck drivers who are fatigued or fishermen who are fatigued. They all are a risk either to themselves, to those who work with them, their patients or other road users. I do not see how Mr Crowley can make the distinction he has made. I hope he is not reflecting the Irish Government’s position in relation to these proposals. It is scandalous and unacceptable that trainee doctors in Irish hospitals are expected to work sometimes in excess of 80 hours a week. It is scandalous and disgraceful that we have truck drivers who are falling asleep at the wheel, putting the lives of those who are working with them and other road users at risk. We know that there is a fairly high rate of road accidents as a result of truck drivers who are driving hours too long.
For Mr Crowley to claim that the tachograph legislation is rigorously applied in Ireland or anywhere else is simply not true. I do not know why that is the case. I do not know why it is not rigorously applied but it is not. We need to take steps to protect the public at large and patients. It is not good enough for any Member State in the Council to say that it would be costly to implement these proposals. Of course it will be costly but what price do you put on the life of a child who may be knocked down on the road, or a patient in hospital who may receive wrong treatment as a result of the fatigue of a doctor? It is just not acceptable. It is necessary that tomorrow we adopt the position as proposed by the rapporteurs and as proposed by the ESOC Committee and put it to the Council that it must finally come to grips with this issue and ensure that nobody has to work the inhuman hours that we are expecting our trainee doctors to work.
In relation to truck drivers, it seems to me that the only way to regulate this is to put it into law. Own-account truck drivers will work all the hours that they get because they are not sure when they will get another job. So it is necessary to apply the law so that they will be forced to take rest and forced not to be on the road when they are simply too tired to drive."@en1
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