Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Lowry and the Minister of State. I am now going to proceed to my own slot. I thank the Minister of State very much for being here, and we were happy to facilitate his request to come in before the weekend. We will be examining his request, and we understand the reason he is looking for the waiver in that he wants this in before Christmas. Christmas is one of those awful times when there are a lot more people travelling longer distances. To address Senator Doherty's point, a lot if it is that people who are not used to driving long distances tend to be doing so at holiday times, visiting holiday homes and friends, and travelling to various events that are on down the country. There are people in this room who travel long distances all the time but a lot of people do not, and all of a sudden they are, and lots of those people are all in tourist type places. They are not used to these roads. Even though the locals might be, they are not, and that is part of the problem.

It is a frightening figure that we are up 31% in this year. The points about education, enforcement and so on are very valid. How many of the 186 actions have been implemented and how many are on the way? I very much welcome the mandatory drug testing. It is surprising it was not there before. Equally, it is very welcome. That people who committed multiple offences were not being penalised for them is almost like they were being rewarded by having a load of offences at the one time and could get away with some of them, so it is welcome that will change. On the change of bank holidays, I think we understand it but it needs public awareness.

There are a few things I would like to ask the Minister of State about with regard to technology and where we can put more technology into people's cars. We all have mobile phones. We are all being tracked every minute of our day, from the minute we get up to the minute we go to sleep. There are boxes that can go in cars that are tracking people's behaviour. If only we had proper technology in cars where, as you drive into a village, housing estate or town, your car is initially warned about it but is ultimately slowed down. That technology probably exists, especially for newer cars. If we were able to slow people down driving into estates, we would not need to be building ramps that cost €20,000 and €30,000 each, which wreck people's suspension, damage their light settings and so on. There is an awful lot there that we are not doing enough on yet. We have seen the really positive effect of what the N7 and the Dublin Port tunnel have done with regard to the levels of enforcement going from over 60% to over 95%. This morning, I was a cyclist who cycled in, and a lady nearly walked into the cycle lane as she was listening to something on her headphones. She was highly apologetic. However, it is about the vigilance of us all - cyclists, pedestrians and road users.

I spoke in the Seanad this morning. We have a bank holiday weekend this weekend, and it is really important that all of us, in all of our social media channels and all of what we do, get the message out to remind people of the point that it is about speed, intoxication, young male drivers, night-times, weekends and mobile phone use. It surprised me when we had the RSA in with us - not the last time but the time before - or maybe it was An Garda Síochána, that there are still a very significant number of people in fatalities who are not wearing seatbelts. That really surprises me. We need to communicate the basic message of wearing a seatbelt, and not plugging it in and sitting on top of it, which I have heard is a practice with certain drivers. I am not going to say in which particular area.

I have a concern about one issue, and it is really the only concern I have with what the Minister of State is proposing. We all know of laneways in rural parts of Ireland where there might be grass growing in the middle of them and they officially have speed limits of 80 km/h. Yet when I was a local authority member, there were places like the dual carriageway from the UCD campus out to Cabinteely church, which was part of my electoral area on one side, where there would often be gardaí on enforcement, watching people doing 60 km/h, being 37 mph, on a very wide, three-lane dual carriageway at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning. That is where we lose the public's buy-in. The public understands speed limits but people are asking if it is really not okay to drive at more than 60 km/h on those roads, on a bright day with quiet traffic. There are lots of times in the day when it is full and congestion is so significant that they cannot drive at those speed limits anyway. However, I would have a small concern about urban areas versus built-up areas. The idea people put to me is that it is going to be a default of 30 km/h on every single road in Dublin. I know it is not but we need the Minister of State to say that and allay people's concerns. In housing estates it is one thing but on main arterial roads, and I am thinking of roads in my area like the Goatstown and Dundrum roads or the Stillorgan dual carriageway, people would have a concern. I would be very happy if people were being enforced at the 50 km/h they are on now. It is for the Minister of State to allay that for us.

However, I am very supportive of the vast bulk of what the Minister of State is recommending, and all of the committee is very supportive of it. The sooner the legislation is in, the hope is that it will reduce road deaths. Seamus Brennan was my local Deputy and the Minister for Transport who introduced penalty points, and at the time it was for three offences. There was a lot of structural resistance within the system, and he was asked if he was sure and told that he was being very brave and courageous. Within weeks of penalty points arriving, road deaths were very significantly down and road incidents were down. I think it was 2003 he brought them in after the Act in 2002. It was hugely beneficial. We had 800 deaths or something in 1972, I think, with an awful lot less people driving, and cars that were obviously not as good.

There is an awful lot technology can do, and I would like to see more being done by the RSA, An Garda Síochána, and the system - ourselves, all of us - to incentivise people to have these technological items in their cars that slow people down. As you drive into towns, cities, villages having come off a motorway, it would slow you down, and then we would not need to worry about making sure there is no GoSafe van or whatever. We would just behave, and our cars would behave on our behalf.

I thank the Minister of State for everything he is doing but he might address those points, in particular the one about the speed limits, and where we are with the 186 actions.