Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am being forthright here. When it comes to road safety, the other major issue is young drivers. Prior to the last meeting, there was a major road tragedy in Donegal, which involved a 14 year old. I saw a report by a road safety official who said that the only way to stop road tragedies among young drivers in Donegal is to have a night-time curfew. They are trying to wash their hands of the problem. We know there are people who are mad about their cars in Donegal, and it can be a problem, but we do not see much mention of that. Reference was made to the spike in road deaths and the reasons for that. I am sorry about this and it should not be happening. There were 14 road deaths in one month, which is bad, but we have to ask why.

The current legislation has not been properly tidied up but we will only make everything more complicated with further amendments, instead of tidying up the existing legislation and enforcing it through the courts, including in respect of the fatalities to which we have referred. This has not just been an issue for the past 12 months, it has gone on for the past four or five years. I am astounded that we think changing the current legislation is going to sort out all these problems; it will not. These problems should all have been sorted out by now. It has been up to the Minister's Department and the Department of Justice and Equality to have sorted this out before now. Those Departments need to come together, be up-front and acknowledge that if existing laws were properly enforced and regulated, judges would not have to deliberate between prosecutors and solicitors over technicalities. Perhaps there would be fewer road deaths and we would not be going down the road of putting innocent drivers off the road by amending legislation.