Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Road Safety Strategy: Discussion

9:00 am

Photo of Imelda MunsterImelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----get the message to them from a young age. When we look at the statistics for speeding and drink driving, the age group is those who have just completed second level or college. The message is not getting through, no matter what. If there is something on their schoolbags literally from primary school age, then awareness is created even if it is subconscious in nature. Schools would have to help with the enforcement of it. Perhaps the RSA would consider this as a viable option and campaign.

I will now turn to the driver testing value-for-money review. Is this a proposal to privatise testing? New legislation, hopefully, is coming through about unaccompanied drivers. In Dublin, there is an 18-month waiting list for driving tests because of the lack of test centres. In the context of Drogheda, there is only one test centre in County Louth. The system is all the time on the back foot. If a person is waiting 12 to 18 months for their driving test the temptation is there to drive unaccompanied. We need to have all our ducks in a row. If the services are not there and the waiting lists are allowed to grow due to insufficient numbers of driving test centres, then it backfires on the RSA's campaigns and it certainly does nothing to discourage people from chancing their arm.

Is much of the authority's work outsourced? Could we get a copy of the driving test value for money review? Finally, the witnesses spoke about an increase in fatalities in the 50 km/h speed limit areas. What is causing that? Has the authority conducted any research into that? Is enforcement of the speed limits the main issue? Is it due to a combination of speeding and a lack of enforcement?

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