Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the Bill, and I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, on bringing it forward.

I am fed up attending funerals of people who should still be with us. Last year was one of the worst years, and week after week we were going to funerals of neighbours, friends or relations who in many cases were far too young to have left this world. We have not treated this matter with enough urgency in this House. In the last week we have had announcements, but we have more announcements than action. It is a shame we have not treated such a serious matter with more urgency.

This Bill is a prime example of this. Everybody agrees it is a clear, concise and simple Bill which can be accepted and be enacted in a short time. Yet it is four years since the subject matter was first mentioned, and we were told it was going to happen in 48 hours. It has still not been done. It is a shame we do not act with more urgency on issues that matter in people's lives. It is not often we act in this House in a way that directly impacts on people and is felt quickly on the ground.

I listened to the speech by the Minister, Deputy Cullen, last night and he seems to know all about how dangerous it is to use mobile phones while driving. He has the advice of every expert in the world and advice from other countries. However, he has been Minister for several years and has not introduced this type of legislation. We should all wonder why we do not act if we know how important these issues are.

It is a miracle there are not twice as many deaths on the roads because of the way we drive and the conditions of the roads. One can park and watch what happens: people overtake on hills, corners and continuous white lines. There is madness on the roads as people have no fear of being caught. This is the most significant factor, and we should introduce legislation such as this to make the law clear. This Bill is clear and people will know they are not supposed to use mobile phones while driving if it is introduced. After clear legislation we require proper enforcement, which we do not currently have. What enforcement we have is needed in many more places. Cameras operated by private companies were promised two or three years ago. We need more of these, as they will catch offenders and deter people from breaking the law. If people are afraid of being caught, they will drive properly.

I have an example of the NRA acting on an area that needed to be improved for safety reasons. It took three and a half years to procure a set of traffic lights for a particular junction on the N3, which facilitated several thousand cars coming out from a side road every day. In order to get the lights, two councillors had to record the traffic coming from the road for a week on tape, and this showed the chaos. The junction was mentioned in The Irish Times list of ten worst accident blackspots in the country. However, councillors had to sit in the office of the NRA to get action. We need to act on parts of our road network to make it safer for people to drive.

It is clear that mobile phone usage while driving must be deterred. There should also be deterrents against other actions while driving, such as reading newspapers, shaving, switching radio channels etc. We are all tempted to do these things. People should clearly comprehend what we should not do while driving. Our education of drivers is not good enough. The driving test is not good enough as it does assess driving in different conditions.

I am disappointed the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, is not agreeing to put driver education on the curriculum. I ask the Minister with responsibility for road safety to bring the issue back to the Department of Education and Science. It is essential we learn to drive from the age of 12. It should be a privilege rather than a right to drive in this country. People believe it to be a right, but we should earn that right. We should encourage people to do advanced driving courses and go a step further to make our roads safer.

We know what can be done to prevent road deaths, and it is not rocket science that is needed, but action. I compliment Mr. Gay Byrne on his new position. However, his target of reducing road deaths by 150 is not good enough. We should be aiming for a greater reduction. Why was the figure of 150 picked, and why is it acceptable to say that 250 people can die on the roads every year? We should set a more ambitious target and attempt to eliminate incidents on the road. Most of these are not accidents but come about because of bad driving and bad road conditions. We should look to reduce the death toll by more than 150.

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