Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 March 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Road Safety Strategy: Discussion (Resumed)

9:00 am

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for taking the time to come here today. We suggested that the committee have several sessions on road safety because, unfortunately, in the past 12 months there has been a reversal of the positive trend in road fatalities. It is very important that the stakeholders come in and give us worthwhile suggestions on what we as a committee can do to feed into any upcoming road safety Bill. It is unfortunate that the Minister seems to be fixated on one issue as the sole and exclusive way to alleviate road fatalities. It is up to the committee to try to bring pressure to bear on him to take a wider approach.

Mr. Farrell's proposal is very innovative and worthwhile and needs a bit more clarification. He talks about monitoring driving patterns and using a carrot rather than a stick because anyone who has penalty points sees an increase in insurance premium, whereas reporting positive driving patterns over a period would result in a reduction in the premium. Anything that improves driving patterns and road safety is very welcome. How quickly could this be rolled out? Who would Mr. Farrell envisage monitoring this? Who would be the monitoring body? How would he see that body reporting or using the data that could be extrapolated from the app?

I am worried about the use of mobile phones in a car, lorry or tractor. Ms Murphy would say we should not use them on the footpath in case we walk off it. We have to be careful how far we go in policing the use of mobile phones. If a person is using the phone when driving a vehicle, how would Mr. Farrell ensure that person never has to take up the phone? Would a requirement for the app be that the phone must be in a permanent cradle in the car or the cabin of the lorry? I recently sent a text message to someone and received an automatic reply to say the person was driving and would respond on reached the destination. Is that a new service or in certain cars?

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