Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials from the Department and the representatives from the medical bureau for coming here. It is disappointing in many ways, because we are all worried about road safety, that there is an issue regarding mutual recognition of disqualifications North and South. A problem exists, although we are reaching some sort of agreement with the UK. When we spoke to the Minister in the past about penalty points and trying to tie them up between North and South, he said there were legislative reasons we could not do it. He indicated that it would prove very difficult. There is a whole raft of issues on which consistency between North and South would be very important, including speed limits, signage, penalty points and all such areas.

There is an issue with regard to employers being responsible for their employees. I often wonder if that is normal European practice. If a person has a haulage company with a load of people driving trucks and so forth, how can we hold the employer responsible if something goes wrong? The employer cannot test everyone. People come and go. There would be very serious implications for an employer if this requirement was introduced. Perhaps that proposal could be explained a bit more.

The combination of drink and drugs is an issue. A person could be caught with drink and a person could be caught with drugs. Should there be a special offence where there is a combination of the two, be they prescribed drugs or illegal drugs? A new offence was mentioned. Should it be a special offence when it comes to something like that? The combination of both is very serious and there should be a higher penalty for it.

I am glad to see that we have come round to the idea of having some sort of vehicle register. In the past, we had company cars. My area was plagued with them for years. The issue has died off with more modern cars. However, it is important that cars that are sold on or thought to have been scrapped do not come back onto the roads. A register that would deal with this issue would be very important. Mr. Towey said that he reckoned that approximately 40% of cars come back onto the roads. I did not think the figure was as high as that, but it is a substantial amount and it could be very dangerous if vehicles are coming back onto the roads.

I am delighted that the Minister is bringing in the new speed limit of 20 km/h. I brought that Bill through the Dáil. There was cross-party agreement to examine this issue. It is very important, especially in housing estates. We seem to have an increase in the number of children who have been killed on the roads recently. We had a very good record over the past few years in terms of reducing the number of people who were killed on the roads. For some reason, the figure increased a bit last year.

I want to ask a few things about medical issues and drugs in general. I have been on the drugs task force for many years. I am repeatedly told that to measure properly the amount of heroin, cocaine or grass or cannabis in a person's system, testing needs to be done within 24 hours. Is it the case that to get a proper measurement it would be necessary to get to an individual within 24 hours? Is there a longer period for different drugs? I am curious about that. How are prescription drugs distinguished? How does that work out? Many car crashes appear to have occurred out of the blue. It has been my opinion for a long time that these crashes could be drug-related, or people may have committed suicide. Do we carry out tests in all incidents? Is there proper testing in what appear to be random car accidents?

Blood specimens and urine were mentioned. What about hair samples and saliva? There is no mention of that. We are still talking in terms of blood specimens and urine. Should we be taking these things into account? I would appreciate a response on some of those issues.