10.—(1) Section 5 of the Road Transport Act, 1978, is hereby amended—

(a) by the substitution for subsection (1) (inserted by section 29(8) of the Dublin Transport Authority Act, 1986), of the following subsection:

“(1) Where an act of the European Communities relating to international transport by road, an international agreement relating to such transport to which the Government, the State or the European Communities is a party, or an agreement, arrangement or resolution relating to such transport to which the Minister is a party so requires, the Minister may by order exempt any specified class of vehicle or any specified class of such transport from section 7 of the Road Transport Act, 1932, sections 6 and 7 of the Road Transport Act, 1935, or any provision of—

(a) any Act, or

(b) any regulations made under the European Communities Act, 1972,

providing for the licensing of road freight carriers or road passenger transport operators or the issuing of transport discs.”,

and

(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2):

“(3) Road passenger vehicles which are permitted to be imported into the State under an agreement referred to in subsection (1) of this section that is in force on the day on which this subsection comes into operation shall be deemed to have been exempted from the provisions of section 4 of the Road Transport Act, 1999, by an order made under subsection (1) of this section.”.

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), an order made by the Minister under section 5(1) of the Road Transport Act, 1978, which is a subsisting order at the commencement of subsection (1)(a), shall continue in force until duly revoked by the Minister.