Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome this Bill, which follows on from the Government's commitment to improve road safety by improving the quality of commercial vehicles and which, in turn, will reduce the number of accidents, injuries and deaths on the nation's roads. This Bill arises from a review of the current system in 2006 by PricewaterhouseCoopers, in light of a number of high profile accidents.

The Road Safety Authority is given two major functions under the Bill. It will now be responsible for the testing system which checks the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles in Ireland. It will ensure the new testing system will be more consistent and have impartial testing standards, and will be targeted at operators who often use non-roadworthy commercial vehicles. The driver licence system will be centralised and its functions transferred from local authorities to the Road Safety Authority. The Road Safety Authority will be responsible for the introduction of the plastic card licence, which is a requirement from an EU directive that comes into effect from 1 Jan 2013.

We know from statistics that commercial vehicles are involved in approximately 20% of all road fatalities in Ireland, while 32% of commercial vehicles tested at roadside checkpoints last year required immediate action, so there is something wrong with the system. We also know that Irish registered vehicles were disproportionately failing road side checks in the UK. Last year, there were 186 fatalities on our roads. This was down on other years, but as the previous speaker said, any death on our roads is one too many. It was the focus of the previous Government and will continue to be a focus of this Government, with a third Bill being introduced by the Minister in the area of road safety. We know that the targets laid out in the Road Safety Strategy are lower than the number of deaths. Mr. Gay Byrne, chairman of the Road Safety Authority, should be praised for all the good work he has done in this area in changing the culture. Drivers are now more conscious when they get behind the wheel of a car. Mr. Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, recently stated that each fatality on our roads costs €2.5 million, which means road deaths alone last year cost €465 million. That is lot of money that is needlessly caught up in these court cases.

Greater efficiencies and accountability will be achieved in the delivery of the service, and we will have greater value for money with the transfer of the driver licensing system to the Road Safety Authority. When the review was carried out in 2006, it showed there were 158 private operators using a variety of testing facilities and equipment who were supervised by 30 public authorities, and that it was almost impossible to achieve consistent, high quality testing. A new ICT programme will be rolled out to help this improved system. This information system will link the test operators with the Road Safety Authority, the Garda Síochána and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

The introduction of risk rating registers will help to identify those vehicle owners, drivers or testing centres who have an issue. Recently there was a broadcast on the scandal in NCT centres and the fact there are rogue testers operating in some centres. It is important that there are greater inspections. I note from the Bill that authorised officers have the power to ensure high standards of testing are achieved across the country.

One of the challenges is to ensure that those prosecuted are brought through the courts quickly. I welcome the publication of the regulatory impact analysis by the Minister, which sets out the various options and choices that were open to him and the reason certain decisions were taken. That is an example of open government to which this Administration adheres.

I have two concerns. The first is in respect of accountability. The Road Safety Authority will not be accountable to Dáil Éireann and the Minister will refer parliamentary questions to the authority. That needs to be followed up. There are also 200 staff working in local authorities in this area. We need to ensure they are redeployed and put into more busy areas in the public service.

Any Bill that helps reduce fatalities on our roads is to be welcomed, and I wish this Bill a speedy passage.

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