Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome both presentations. I would like to direct my first question to Mr. Towey. Will the bilateral agreement that has been negotiated with the UK, which will be signed by us shortly and will be signed by the UK after next month's general election in that country, apply to and include Northern Ireland? Perhaps Mr. Towey answered this question in his presentation. I am not quite sure. Perhaps he can confirm the answer.

Deputy Ellis spoke about vehicles that have been written off. I was alarmed to learn that 45,000 vehicles are being written off each year. My interpretation of "written off" obviously differs from what Mr. Towey is talking about. I think that if a car is written off, it is a danger on the public road. If 40% of cars that are written off are coming back onto our roads, that means we are talking about approximately 18,000 cars. Surely this is creating a dangerous situation for us. If a car has been written off, it should be broken down for its scrap value and any suitable parts should be reused. I think the current approach is putting dangerous vehicles on our roads. Are these written-off vehicles still liable for or subjected to national car testing? Is there any way we could reduce the number of written-off vehicles that are being reused and coming back onto our roadways? Is there any way to ensure a car is demolished or broken up for its scrap value, perhaps three months after being written off?

I would like to give my personal view about the 20 km/h speed limit. I appreciate the work that Deputy Ellis is doing on this issue in the Lower House. As far as I am concerned, speed limit signs are worth absolutely nothing. They are a waste of money and a waste of time. I accept that vehicles are parked here and there to catch people who exceed the speed limit. I was caught doing 63 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, after coming off a motorway where I could do 120 km/h. No discretion was shown, but that is not my issue. I am saying that these signs are absolutely useless. The only way to slow down traffic in built-up areas like housing estates is to construct speed bumps. In fact, some local authorities have made it obligatory for them to be constructed in housing schemes at the construction stage. Not many housing schemes are being built at present. Some local authorities - I will not mention their names - have constructed speed bumps at the construction stage. It is the only way. I have seen them and studied them near schools on main roads in many counties in this country. I have taken photographs of locations where flashing lights and various "slow down" type signs, showing schoolchildren walking hand in hand, are used. I have gone into local schools. The only way to slow drivers down, even after all those signs were installed, was to construct a speed bump in the middle of the school road and one at each end of the school road.

I firmly believe that is the only way to address the problem in existing and new estates. There are no long stretches of straight roadway through many of our estates. The perpetrators of excessive speeding in housing estates are not, by and large, people driving through them for the first time, rather they are residents of those estates, some of who themselves have children. We must protect the children. The only way of doing so is to encourage drivers to slow down.