Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

One must look after one's elderly neighbours. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this Bill and to congratulate the Minister on its introduction. We are dealing with one of the products of the Celtic tiger. Unlike Deputy Fitzpatrick, my period of reflection is quite short. If one goes back 20 years, 900,000 people were at work with a proportionate number of cars. Unfortunately, I do not have the precise figure. Now twice as many people are at work and a direct result of this hugely positive development is that there are twice as many cars on the road. In turn, this puts pressure on all the different support systems for motorists such as road construction, traffic control, speed regulation and driver testing. In all of these areas, we are working hard just to keep pace with the massive number of cars and the dramatically changed circumstances on the roads.

The primary function of the Driver Testing and Standards Authority Bill 2004 is to improve delivery of the driver testing service. There has been a marked lack of legislation in this area for some time. I do not remember being able to buy a licence for £1 but clearly remember my parents' recollection of how easy it was to do so. That was a reflection of the time when there was much more space on the road, when automobile manufacturing was less technologically advanced and when driving was more a pleasure and social activity than an absolute quotidian necessity for the vast bulk of the population. Given the changed circumstances as a result of the increased number of cars, our primary difficulty is with safety. Anything that improves the safety environment on the roads such as improvements to the driver testing system is to be welcomed.

Deputy Fitzpatrick made a good point when he drew an analogy with airline pilot training and the aircraft simulator in which all pilots must practice for a certain number of certified hours before being deemed capable of taking an aircraft in strictly controlled situations. Given some careful consideration, a worthwhile parallel activity could be brought into play in the driver testing arena, particularly for emergencies. One feature of the driving test that has often struck me is that it is all very well until one actually encounters a glitch or emergency in a car, especially an emergency created by another road user. How many times have driving tests been conducted without the inclusion of a genuine emergency in the course of the test? It is the ultimate test for any driver. It must be possible, using Deputy Fitzpatrick's useful suggestion, to create a system with at least one test on a simulator where an emergency can be included to test the driver's reaction.

Another point concerns the number of heavy goods vehicles on the road. We have already had a debate about the port tunnel. I am sceptical of the pattern that appears to be emerging with the number and size of super-trucks on the road. If a normal truck was a permanent building, it would require planning permission. Yet we see trucks become bigger and bigger, hurtling along our motorways, invariably — I say this deliberately — in excess of the speed limit and providing a huge danger to all road users. This happens both on and off motorways. Recently, the port tunnel's height was called into question. Are we to continue to adjust our way of life because commercial entities want to employ bigger, uglier and more dangerous trucks? If trucks did not have wheels on them, they would be subject to planning regulations and would invariably be refused permission, as they are totally out of context here. A time must come when a line is drawn on commerce and its requirements vis-À-vis the greater need and the greater good of society in general.

We are all aware of the excessive waiting periods currently encountered in the existing driver testing system. I am particularly conscious of this as I represent a Dublin constituency, a county, namely, Fingal, which does not have its own driver testing centre although it has a population just short of 250,000. Recently, this population has been growing at the average rate of approximately 25,000 people per annum. To put that into context, 25,000 people is almost the population of Leitrim and the growth in Fingal's population for the past three years has been the equivalent of lifting the population of Leitrim and transposing it into Dublin on an annual basis without the infrastructure.

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