Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister wondered why the number of fatalities increased last year. The massive increase in the volume of traffic on our roads has certainly contributed to that. The longer distances people now have to drive to work also contributes to it. Our roads are not adequate for the volume of traffic or the size of vehicle using them at present. Bridges in many parts of the country were built over 200 years ago. They are not fit for today's traffic and certainly contribute to accidents occurring. There is also a problem with bends and junctions. At one bend in Glenflesk, there have been five fatalities. The camber of the road is wrong but nothing has been done about it even though many members of Kerry County Council highlighted the fact at meetings. There are also the junctions around Killarney. I am simply giving the Minister the examples I am aware of that have caused, and are still causing, accidents and fatalities. Bends and junctions must be addressed.

If the Minister wishes to reduce the number of fatalities on the roads, he and his Department will be very busy because there is much work to be done. If he has everything so right that he can say that a fellow who has had two or three glasses of beer or Guinness is the cause of all the fatalities and trouble on the roads, then I must tell him that there are many other things to be considered. Indeed, somebody told me the other day, and it is a fact, that because of the height requirement for the car's headlamps when they are tested for the NCT many of us drive most of the time with dipped lights. That means one can see no more than 30 m ahead because they are too low. That is the result of us complying with the laws that apply for the NCT.

People are frustrated when trying to overtake. One cannot overtake on a road, day or night, because of the amount of traffic both ahead and oncoming. If one is in a large vehicle, there is nowhere on the side of the road to pull in and allow traffic pass. It has been decided by the NRA in recent times that the roads can only be a certain width. We are trying to widen them. When a stretch of road was being redone recently, the NRA would not let us widen it any further. As a result, there was no place for a slow moving vehicle to move in and allow the traffic to flow. These matters must be considered.

I do not rely on the figures the Minister has given us today for a number of reasons. I would like to see how they are compiled. The Minister said that 35 people were killed between 2008 and 2012 because of individuals who were in the 50 mg to 80 mg bracket. We need to know whether there was some poor unfortunate person who drank four or five pints and, when walking home, fell in front of a car for some reason or was lying on the road when the car came along. Perhaps the driver of the car drank a pint or one and a half pints. He would have been blamed for that fatality. Many pedestrians have been killed over the years. That is because our roads are not adequate for pedestrians in the first instance. We are not allowed to cut the bushes so pedestrians are walking practically half way out on the road because the briars and bushes are sticking out. Some other do-gooders will not let us cut the bushes other than during a couple of months of the year, and they are not even being cut then. The Minister must consider that.

Then there is the case where a fellow is driving home on his own side of the road after drinking a pint or two or three glasses. He is on his own side of the road when a lunatic driving at 100 mph on the other side of the road crashes into him, resulting in a fatality. It is the fellow who drank the pint or the half pint who is blamed and it is deemed to be an alcohol-related accident. There is also the case of the fellow who is travelling home after having one pint and he hits black ice. When the story is told, again, it is and alcohol-related incident. I want to know the make-up of the Minister's figures. He should go back and check them. I do not believe that it is a person who drinks one pint or a pint and a glass or three glasses. In rural Ireland, that has been the only option for the past number of years. The only outlet an old man, a single man or a single lady had in the country was to go to the pub and have the three glasses. I assure the Minister that they drove home carefully and that they have not been the cause of the accidents he mentions. I have a good grasp of what happens in my neck of the woods and I travel a fair amount of ground. I know that nobody caused a fatality after drinking three glasses of Guinness.

If the Minister does this to the people in rural Ireland, he will isolate them further. They are isolated enough already. Many of them would not know that their neighbour down the road was dead were it not for the death notices on the Kerry radio station every morning at 8 a.m. That is how isolated they are at present. They have no other outlet.

It is a very serious matter for someone in rural Ireland to lose his or her licence. Such people do not take their licence lightly and they have been obeying the law. The people who take three glasses have not caused the 35 accidents as the Minister states and in the way it is presented to us. I believe it has been happening in different ways. We know what happened because we are on the ground. It was the black ice and the fellow with the one pint, or it was where the pedestrian was maybe after having a few drinks or something else happened to him, he fell out on the road and he was before the driver who came along and who was driving after having a pint and a half pint. The Minister should address those issues and check those figures because I firmly believe, and I am very serious about it, that the person with three glasses or a glass of wine has not been causing the fatalities.

If the Minister wants to do something about the fatalities, there is a lot of work to be done. There is savage speeding on the roads and the roads are not adequate. There are bends and cambers on roads and many other things to be addressed. The Minister would be very busy but should start and do everything in the proper order. If he does those things he will see he is reducing the number of accidents and fatalities because that has not been done. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, and the National Roads Authority, NRA, have not been listening to us. If the Minister wants to do good work in his term as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, he should address these issues because the issue in front of us is totally unnecessary at this time.