Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

On behalf of the Green Party, I happily welcome this Bill and commend my constituency colleague, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, for bringing it forward. I noted with interest last night that she referred to the comment made four years ago by the then Minister of State, former Deputy Molloy, reported in the newspapers, that "Mobile phones by drivers will be outlawed within 48 hours". Four years on nothing has happened. Slightly before that time the same Minister of State stated that within three years of liberalising the taxi market there would be 100% accessibility in this city for those in wheelchairs. I can tell the former Minister of State that there is 0.1% accessibility for people with a disability. The Government has not achieved his aim in the case of mobile phones either.

That brings me to my central point, that when it comes to transport or road issues, it seems, after campaigning for 15 years, that one cannot get away from the political arena. It is politicians who make so many of the fundemental decisions which determine the transport and road safety systems provided. I raise this as a word of warning to Mr. Gay Byrne as he sets out on his new task. I very much welcome his arrival as he is a man who was thorough when he worked in programming and the thoroughness and preparations he exhibited in that life will be very useful if applied in his new role. I read in one of the newspapers the other day that when he had started in his new role he was wary and said that if he saw political interference at any time, he would walk away. Unfortunately, he will have to get political. For the right decisions on necessary changes to be made, he must influence decision making on the far side of the House and in every local authority.

Let me set out some examples. While the new Road Safety Authority has a broad brief, I note it will very much be involved in what one might call soft areas — education, training, driving standards and even enforcement. That is both welcome and proper. While such an authority might have responsibility for the way tachographs are used or the rules and conditions applying to HGVs, for example, it is an inherently unsafe system if, at the same time, as is being proposed because of a political decision, there are HGVs thundering along the quays in the centre of this city juxtaposed with pedestrians and cyclists. While welcome, no amount of soft measures will address the fundamental problem. The difficult political problem is that there is not the political will to raise safety issues high enough on the political agenda to take the tough decision that we have spent €1 billion on the port tunnel and must now take the trucks out of the city. One would think at a time when people are shocked by the number of deaths on the roads that that would be an easy political decision to take but it is not. Part of the reason is that the Minister for Transport will have been lobbying the city council to look after the haulage industry because the economy, rather than human life, counts for more. That is the problem for Mr. Byrne. When he starts to investigate this issue, he will realise that such political thinking lies behind the terrible litany of deaths on the roads.

I can think of other examples. Road safety is about driver behaviour which we must regulate. This is a welcome step in the right direction but road safety is also about the detailed design of every junction and road crossing. It shocks me to see the quality of some of the designs being introduced today. It also shocks me to see the way in which we treat pedestrians. Mr. Byrne will know what it is like to be a cyclist, as well as a motorcyclist. Having talked about the need for better design for ten years, it shocks me that our engineers are still designing roads based on the needs of car and truck users rather than people. It requires Mr. Byrne and the Minister to tell every county council that the matter will be conducted differently and that some of the massive budget allocated every year for new roads will be diverted to improving safety on existing roads so as to permit every child to walk or cycle to school and reverse the remarkable statistics which indicate that increasing numbers of children are being driven. In some counties more girls drive rather than cycle to school. Until the roads in these counties are mended to make it easier for parents to decide to allow their children cycle to school, the other soft measures will not work. The legacy of political decision making is a transport system based on the idea that the more roads and cars we have, the better. Statistics carried in yesterday's edition of the Irish Independent revealed that Irish people were at the top of the table in the amount of driving they did. In those political circumstances and with that amount of driving, we will have accidents. It is a political decision to say that is not clever economically, socially and, in particular, with regard to road safety. The more people who switch from that form of transport to taking buses and trains, the more lives we will save. When Mr. Byrne starts investigating this issue, he should realise that the Ministers opposite do not think like this.

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