Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I welcome the motivation behind the Bill. I believe there is all-party support for this genuine attempt to bring down the number of deaths on the roads. No one could quarrel with the idea that we should more stringently and strictly test commercial vehicles, which are responsible for so many of the fatalities and accidents on our roads.

Having welcomed the Bill, however, I question the method by which this is done. It shows a conventional type of thinking. It is one of the hallmarks of this and other Governments, that when they come to improve a problem, they do not attack it in any radical fashion. I refer to the extraordinary reliance in the Bill on the Road Safety Authority. I do not want to be overly critical of the Road Safety Authority. It has, undoubtedly, done an extremely good job in recent years in reducing the number of fatalities on the roads. Contrary to what might have been said in the House yesterday, I congratulate the chairman, Mr. Gay Byrne, on having championed and led the tribe against these fatalities and on having done so with a certain amount of success. His was an inspired appointment by the, then, Minister, Mr. Martin Cullen. Mr. Gay Byrne is one of the great communicators of our time. To convince drivers what a dangerous machine they have in their grip, it was important a communicator of the prowess and skills of Mr. Gay Byrne was put in charge. He is listened to on the airwaves when he talks about this subject, as he is listened to when he talks about anything at all. In that sense, his was a great appointment and a great re-appointment. Long may he remain in that position, because he has a sincerity and a non-political drive that is welcome.

I am concerned about the Road Safety Authority itself and the faith the Government has in it. Successive Governments have shown that although they may have faith in the executive, they treat the Road Safety Authority as they do any other quango, by stuffing it with their own people when they come to power. It shows an enormous disrespect for authorities set up by the State and with such important jobs to do that when it comes to making appointments to their boards, Governments constantly appoint their own party people rather than people with an expertise. This is not an insignificant job. Members of the Road Safety Authority get €8,100 a year for their pains.

The Government has not improved on the practices of the previous Government in this respect. It has made two appointments to the Road Safety Authority since it came to power. The two appointments are fascinating. The authority's annual report gives an account of both appointments and of what the individuals do. What is so interesting is what the annual report leaves out. I was disappointed to see that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, who is a pioneer in making more independent appointments to quangos and who has championed the idea that they should go before Oireachtas committees and be examined, in this case has made two appointments that are blatantly political. The two people are members or supporters of his own party and have no obvious qualifications for sitting on this body. One, who gets €8,100 a year, not only lives in the Minister's constituency but nominated Mr. Kieran Dennison as a Fine Gael candidate in the 2009 local elections. The other is a man from Roscommon who is regional director and organiser for Fine Gael in that area. This is disgraceful behaviour on something that is so important as this body. The annual report goes into great detail about both these people. It tells us one of them has been the young farmer of the year, although God knows how that qualifies him for membership of the Road Safety Authority.

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