Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the pre-legislative scrutiny issue, I have some sympathy with where Deputy Kenny is coming from. If we are to change speed limits in urban areas in the way the Minister of State quite rightly wants to, it will not happen inside six months. It certainly will not make a difference between now and Christmas. It is disingenuous to suggest that. The Minister of State is 100% correct in his view that people see a speed limit as a target - they have to get to 120 km/h. I have driven on rural roads where the speed limit is 80 km/h, it goes up to 100 km/h, you head for 100 km/h and the next thing you are into a series of U-bends, still at 100 km/h. There needs to be a review of when we move from 80 km/h to 100 km/h and when it is safe to do so. The Chairman adverted to something that drives me insane, which is driving down the Stillorgan dual carriageway and seeing the speed truck at Stillorgan. The number of people caught is minimal, I would say. Yet, I drive on rural roads in west Galway or County Donegal - as a Senator, we drive on rural roads quite a lot - and I have yet to see a significant number of speed traps on rural roads anywhere. I have driven on roads in some parts of the country where I was taking my life in my hands, only to be overtaken by somebody travelling at perhaps 100 km/h. I would certainly be driving much slower. I have a difficulty with that. Even if we were to waive pre-legislative scrutiny right now, there will still be difficulty getting local authorities to rebadge roads or agree that a stretch of road between two different local authorities is capped at 80 km/h or 100 km/h. The guidelines that will have to be laid down will be really important.

Another issue is motorways. I have seen more speed checks on motorways than on rural roads. Something is terribly wrong about that. There is a tendency to treat it as a fishbowl - just sit on the motorway and pick them off one by one. They should be out on secondary roads. I spoke about the issue of farm vehicles on rural roads during the summer. There are farm fatalities all the time because of young people driving tractors. The tractors we have today and the tractors we had 20 years ago are very different machines. There are enormous machines with huge capacity and massive horsepower and we see 16-year-old kids driving them. They are not supposed to be on the road but they are. There is absolutely zero requirement associated with driving a tractor. You can drive one on the family farm and there is no requirement whatsoever. During busy times of the year when silage is being collected and various other things, you see young children driving these massive tractors.

I take issue with the story behind young male drivers. I recall when my son was in his teens and was learning to drive. He and his friends were opposed to the notion that anybody would drive having had alcohol, even the following morning. They had a much more appreciative view of the rules of the road than I would have had at that age, for example. I am not so sure young male drivers are all wrong; there is certainly some evidence but I am not so sure they all are.

If I am uninsured, chances are I will not obey any other rule of the road either. If I am taking drugs, chances are I could not give a continental damn about other rules of the road. If I am drinking and driving, I certainly am not going to be too pushed about speed limits. I suggest to the Minister of State that if somebody is caught driving over a particular speed or under the influence of drugs or alcohol or uninsured, the vehicle should be taken from them and crushed. It should be sent to the local scrap yard and destroyed because if you do not have a vehicle you cannot drive over the speed limit or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. We should be far less tolerant. If you crush one or two cars in a village or town, I guarantee people will start to become a lot more compliant with the rules of the road.

On the issue of cycling, I once criticised a cyclist for crashing a red light I was sitting at. He was beside me and he crashed the red light and took off. I was challenged to cycle around Dublin and I did. It is a very dangerous occupation. One surprise was that HGV drivers and bus drivers were far more aware of me on a bicycle than car drivers. Car drivers seemed to feel they had to win the race at the traffic lights and get out ahead of me. We need to look at our traffic lighting system. There is a system in some places but not others that allows the cyclist perhaps 30 seconds to get past a junction before a car can move off. We need to look at that.

Another matter slightly outside this conversation-----