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 Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator.

I will address the rural-urban divide. I fully understand that there is a difference between rural and urban views sometimes, certainly in the interpretation of drinking and driving. The whole culture is somewhat different. I do not think that one can say there is any excuse for driving when over the limit, regardless of where one lives. I know this is harder to take in some places than in others where there is a tradition which exists and where the pub is so important to people's social lives. The Senator said that there are exceptional cases. I do not believe that there are any exceptional cases. I believe this is an absolute rule. If one is over the limit in Dublin, then one is over the limit in rural areas as well, although I sympathise with the difficulties which some people will face in this situation. They must accept that the dangers posed by people getting behind the wheel when over the limit are the same in one place as in another. The dangers of fatalities are the same because the impairment to driving is the same. I appeal to them in these situations to make the necessary arrangements to be able to have a good social life in the local pub but also to be able to get home safely. I presume that would mean sharing cars with a companion who is not drinking. They could hire a bus or perhaps the local publican could arrange for them to get lifts home. Those arrangements will have to be made. It may be inconvenient. However, inconvenience is worth it in the interests of saving innocent lives.

It must be said absolutely firmly that there cannot be any exceptions because of where one lives. While we understand, and I understand fully, the difficulties this may cause, it is about life and death.

The primary focus of the 2016 Bill we passed in December, which was signed on 27 December, concerned drug driving. It is an initial step which includes various drugs, but particularly cocaine, cannabis and heroin. It is very novel because, as with alcohol, it sets an absolute level beyond which, if one has the substance in one's blood, it automatically becomes an offence. One does not have to prove anything else except that the motorist has a certain amount of a certain drug in his or her blood. This is revolutionary. The legislation will probably be commenced in the next three months. The administration is now being organised to do that. I hope to commence the legislation in the next three months when the Garda and the equipment are ready to do this. I hope it will attack the problem of which the Senator speaks because the anecdotal evidence is that it is a big problem. We reckon it is a big problem and we reckon it causes death, which is why we are acting on it. This measure is not reflected in the latest figures because it has not been enacted or implemented yet, but I very much hope it will come to be reflected in the figures. I presume the committee does not wish to go into the details of the Act now but I can give a fair summary of it if the committee wishes. If the measures are effective when introduced, they will affect the figures. It is quite tough legislation, and deliberately so.

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