Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I will try to do that. I thank the committee for inviting me here today to talk about our road traffic Bill 2021. As the Chairman said, I am joined today by my assistant secretary, Mr. Ray O’Leary, and other officials involved in the delivery of this legislation.

Safety in all areas of transport has always been the highest priority of my Department. In the area of road safety, Ireland has made significant strides in the past but we need to do more to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads. The Bill will address a number of important issues that will add to road safety. I am sure the committee will want to see this moved on from pre-legislative scrutiny to publication as soon as possible.

This Bill began life under the previous Government and was delayed first by the election and then the pandemic. As a result, issues have arisen since it began and preparation can now be addressed, in particular some commitments in our programme for Government. Some of these additional matters may be included in the published Bill, while some may have to be introduced as amendments on Committee Stage. What I propose to do here is outline the main issues to be addressed in the Bill.

On the issue of the master licence record, my Department holds the legal records of driving licences and vehicle ownership. At present, these records cannot be linked. This has created difficulties in linking road traffic offences to specific licence records, particularly in cases which come before the courts. As a result, people's penalty points and disqualifications, which should be marked on people’s records, are not, and these people may continue to drive on our roads while disqualified. The Bill will address this by requiring people registering vehicle ownership to provide a unique identifier allowing a link to a driver licence record. This will mean that even if people fail to produce a driving licence in court, we will be able to identify their driving licence record from their vehicle and apply the appropriate points or disqualification.

Further legislation is included to enhance the motor third-party liability database for all motor insurance policies in the State. The aim is to tackle uninsured driving, reduce the risk to law-abiding motorists and cut the cost of insurance.

With regard to traffic management, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, is investing in a project to allow for what is called dynamic traffic management on the M50 motorway. This will involve varying speed limits to manage traffic flow as well as lane closures where appropriate. The Bill will contain measures to make regulations to provide the signage and allow it to set the speed limits.

The committee has expressed an interest, as have many other Members of the Dáil, in how we plan to legislate for e-scooters. I will be proposing to define a new class of vehicles called powered personal transporters, PPT, which will include e-scooters. Once PPTs are vehicles legally usable in public, it will become possible to make regulations for standards and safety. I know there are different views on this and I would be happy to discuss it further with the committee.

Scrambler motorbikes are again an issue of significant interest to a large number of our colleagues within the Oireachtas. The Government has committed to act against people who engage in anti-social use of scramblers, quads and other vehicles with legislation to enhance Garda powers if necessary.

The Government has also committed in its programme to act against people who engage in antisocial use of scramblers, quads and other vehicles, with legislation to enhance Garda powers if necessary. The antisocial use of these vehicles ruins the enjoyment of public amenities for everyone else, and risks causing death or serious injury. We will legislate to create a new ministerial power to make regulations which will address the use of scramblers and similar vehicles in places where they are not appropriate, such as parks and amenity areas. The Garda will be empowered to detain and dispose of vehicles used contrary to the new legislation. It will also have power to enter premises where vehicles are kept, so that they can seize vehicles suspected of having been used contrary to the new regulations.

With regard to the testing of automated vehicles, AVs, we are going to legislate to allow for the safe testing of automated vehicles on our roads. It is likely to be a good many years before AVs are widely available on the market, but a great deal of development work is under way, and this inevitably means they will have to be tested in real-life situations.

Members of the committee will be familiar with the planned BusConnects project. It was originally my intention to have a separate Bill which would introduce legislation needed to underpin BusConnects, but this would not be possible in the available time. My officials are therefore working with the Office of the Attorney General to introduce amendments to the present Bill to provide the necessary legislation to enable BusConnects to go ahead. This is still in progress, and at this point the precise provisions have yet to be settled.

The Bill also covers an extensive range of other areas that are far too numerous to mention in this opening statement. In the current timeframe, very near the summer recess, it is unlikely the Bill will be before the Houses before the autumn. However, I would very much appreciate if the committee could reach its conclusions on pre-legislative scrutiny quickly in order that we can publish the Bill for Deputies and Senators to consider and then proceed to debate it in the Houses as soon as possible after the summer recess.