Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For the rest of us who are paying insurance and trying to obey the rules as best we can, it is frustrating to discover that so many vehicles on the road are uninsured, and possibly more we do not know about.

There are many issues I would like to talk about but we do not have much time. One that the Minister of State might put on his list of issues is mutual recognition of licences from other countries. We have issues in that regard, which I have raised previously. In particular, the Moldovan ambassador has contacted me, but other countries have been making inquiries. We may be agreeing on 95% of the licensing but in the remaining 5% of cases, people have to start the whole process and these cases clog up the system. Let us try to align those countries. The US is a big problem because it is done on a state-by-state basis rather than on a national basis.

Another issue is the modal shift. Taxis are an issue, which nobody has mentioned. Night buses would relieve that problem. We need a lot more night buses, more frequently, to more areas. Aviation policy is also a major issue. Active travel is an area where there is also scope.

We are relying not only on Insurance Ireland but also on Garda discretion. It is technically illegal to drive a car with an out-of-date NCT. Garda discretion is being applied all the time, but we probably need some form of interim temporary legislation to provide that if a person has a driver test or an NCT test booked, that is okay, but if not, it is a problem. Some people are rolling one NCT over into the next. They never pass their NCT and they are out on the road. They should not be in a position to say they are in the right. We need to look at those who are trying to get an NCT. They are different from people who are just rolling over one test into the next and never getting their vehicle tested. All these people are a danger to the rest of us.

I commend all of the work the Minister of State is doing. Those are just some takeaway points I would like him to consider for our next meeting. Hopefully, our next quarterly briefing will be before the summer. We might make that a three-hour session rather than the on-hour session we are having today. I thank the Minister of State for all he is doing.