Over 60% of Irish lorries checked by Britain's main road safety agency, the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency (Vosa), failed to meet its standards in spot inspections between April 2006 and last March.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) in Ireland has confirmed that its chief executive, Noel Brett, has met with officials from Britain's Department of Transport and Vosa to discuss the situation.

However, the Irish Road Haulage Association has accused Vosa, which operates a more extensive programme of random roadside checks than the authorities here, of being too pedantic about standards.

Of the 5,593 Irish lorries Vosa examined for vehicle safety, almost one-third were overloaded, 35% failed roadworthiness checks and 61% had trailers that were deemed unroadworthy. It checked the drivers' hours of another 5,766 and found that 35% of Irish drivers had broken safety rules governing how long they could spend behind the wheel without a break.

A spokesman for the RSA said "the figures released by Vosa do give cause for concern". He said ensuring the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles and enforcing drivers' hours legislation was a priority for the authority.

He added that the RSA was planning to step up its enforcement of road safety legislation by recruiting two extra vehicle testers and 12 more transport officers. At present it has only three testers and six transport officers. The UK employs 957 inspector and 84 vehicle testers.

"These increased resources, together with the development of a coherent and comprehensive enforcement regime by the RSA and An Garda Siochana will significantly enhance our capacity to enforce legislation relating to the road traffic activities of commercial vehicle operators, " he said.

However, the president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA), Jimmy Quinn, claimed that Vosa's figures exaggerated the extent of noncompliance among Irish hauliers, as even minor lighting problems were counted as failures.

"The law's the law but if you look at everything as strictly as they do, these figures will be thrown up, " he said.

"Everyone agrees the rules have to be some place but in Britain, it's either a sin bin offence or you're okay. There's no happy medium."

Quinn said Irish hauliers tended to send their best equipment to Britain and Europe because the cost of repairs there was "mind-blowing".

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said that it was awaiting a report and recommendations from the RSA on the compulsory roadworthiness testing of goods vehicles and buses.