Mr. Fintan Towey:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to address the committee today and for introducing myself and my colleagues. I have a short presentation which I will run through quickly. The Bill comprises about 25 heads. There are five major themes within the Bill and some further miscellaneous provisions. Those themes are as follows: driving under the influence of drugs; issues linked to distracted driving due to electronic communications; mutual recognition of driver disqualifications with the UK; provision for a regulatory regime for written-off vehicles; and an obligation for employers to carry out tests on their drivers for intoxicants. We are also proposing, as the Minister has communicated to the Chairman, to include a provision for a special speed limit of 20 km/h in certain residential areas. While that final measure is not included in the heads as they have been communicated to the committee, the Minister has indicated his intention to propose an amendment in this regard.

I will focus first on driving under the influence of drugs. The Bill provides for a very significant advance in the measures pertaining to drug driving. Essentially, the policy objective is to bring the provisions pertaining to driving under the influence of drugs other than alcohol more closely into line with those pertaining to driving under the influence of alcohol. At present, there is an offence in the Road Traffic Act 2010 of being intoxicated and unable to maintain proper control of a vehicle. What we are proposing to do here is introduce new offences. One will be an offence of driving with illicit drugs in one's bloodstream. We are also proposing to add a new offence of driving while impaired by prescribable drugs. There are two tests for prescribable drugs and one test only for illicit drugs.

We are making provision that the Medical Bureau of Road Safety will be statutorily empowered to test, approve and supply devices to the Garda for roadside testing for drugs other than alcohol. This is essentially providing for new technological developments that allow roadside testing for drugs to take place. The Garda will be empowered to require the provision of an oral fluid specimen at the roadside. We will also make provision for mandatory intoxicant testing. That is an expansion of the mandatory alcohol testing rules that exist right now. Essentially, it is random testing for drugs as well as for alcohol.

There will be an obligation for drivers to provide a blood specimen at a Garda station following arrest after detection of drugs and, where applicable, impairment. The penalties imposed will be similar to those that apply in cases of drink driving.

Higher penalties will be provided for in instances where a person is driving under the influence of both alcohol and drugs.

I will now deal with the distracted driving provisions. Essentially, this relates to instances where drivers are driving while using mobile technology. There is already an offence in legislation since 2006 relating to holding a phone while driving. Since 2014, an additional provision has been introduced to regulations which relates to texting and issuing a short message service, SMS, on a cradle-borne device. That is provided for in secondary legislation. What we are doing now is an integrated provision, setting out all the prohibitions in primary legislation relating to the use of electronic devices while driving. It will incorporate both existing provisions with respect to holding a phone and also the use of hands in interacting with a mobile device that is cradle-borne.

The next section of the Bill I will mention relates to mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between Ireland and the United Kingdom. This was already provided for in legislation through a European Union convention on driving disqualifications. However, the convention was ratified by only seven member states and only implemented by Ireland and the UK. Under the Lisbon treaty, the UK had an option to withdraw from this convention and a number of other measures under the justice and home affairs provisions. It has exercised its right to withdraw from the convention, with effect from 1 December last year. In effect, the legal arrangements we have had in place with the UK regarding mutual recognition of driver disqualifications have not been operating since that date. We have negotiated a new bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom and we hope to sign it shortly. The UK will not be in a position to sign until after the elections there on 7 May. We are providing for legislative implementation of the agreement so we can ratify it after we have passed the legislation.

I will turn to new measures relating to written-off vehicles. Currently, there are no statutory regulatory measures relating to vehicles that have been written off. There are approximately 45,000 vehicles written off in Ireland each year, with approximately 40% finding their way back into service. There are administrative arrangements in place with a link between the insurance companies and the national vehicle and driver file to record vehicles that have been written off beyond repair. There are measures to prevent them being brought back into use. We are proposing to provide a statutory basis for that administrative arrangement on the one hand and the development of a more comprehensive regulatory regime regarding written-off vehicles that would govern the possibility of these vehicles being reintroduced to use. It would also govern the possible reuse of parts of vehicles involved in road collisions. Essentially, the regulatory regime would be developed to regulate, with secondary legislation made by the Minister.

There are some further measures provided for in the Bill. We are providing for a responsibility on employers of drivers of buses, minibuses and heavy goods vehicles to test their drivers for intoxicants. This mirrors a provision already in place relating to safety-critical workers on railways and Bus Éireann has asked us to provide statutory underpinning for this so it can introduce the measure for its workers.

We are introducing an offence relating to participation in unauthorised races of animal-drawn vehicles. There is already an offence relating to the organisation of such events but there is no offence relating to participation. The Garda has reported that there is difficulty in taking a prosecution where it is not possible to identify the organiser of such an event.

We are also making some minor provisions for penalty points relating to the use of trailers. We are expanding the penalty points provision in order to cover the issues I have referred to with regard to distracted driving and the use of electronic devices while driving.