Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

This outrageous situation was allowed to develop because people did not prioritise driver testing to ensure that drivers would be obliged to be trained and qualified before taking a car out on their own. It is ludicrous and scandalous that there are more than 400,000 unqualified drivers on the roads. No other European country allows inexperienced and unqualified people to drive on their own. If we are serious about tackling the issue of road safety, this matter must be tackled as a matter of urgency.

I hope that the new authority will be successful in dealing with this matter and while I accept it is a difficult situation, it must be tackled urgently. I am concerned that the authority's myriad areas of responsibility create the risk that it will lose sight of its primary responsibility, namely, to devise a road safety strategy and to ensure that such a strategy is delivered. Members do not want the authority to be a talking shop and thus far the indications from its chief executive and its newly-appointed chairman are that it will not be so. I hope this is the case and I wish both people well in their new roles.

However, Members know from experience that agencies can become bogged down with their day-to-day business. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that the principal function of the new road safety authority is to devise a road safety strategy, set performance indicators and measure performance against them on an annual basis. Irrespective of anything else, this must be the primary focus because although the aspirations contained in both the present road safety strategy and its predecessor were worthy, we fell short in delivering on the targets set.

While I will not rehearse the points made in respect of the present and previous strategies, we simply do not measure up and do not perform as we should in respect of road safety. It is important that this legislation states that the primary function of the road safety authority is to set the strategy and ensure that we measure the performance of the various bodies and people who have a role to play in this regard on an annual basis. This is the only way to reduce the figures. We have not done so thus far. Questions about the present strategy have been kicked to touch continually, with statements to the effect that the end of the strategy has not yet been reached and that hopefully such targets will be achieved at its conclusion. The Minister is aware that in several respects, the targets will not be reached by the end of this year. In other areas, such as the information which the Garda is meant to keep in respect of serious accidents, no such information is kept. The Garda does not have the figures for last year or previous years. How can we meet targets without having figures? The focus must be kept on performance measured against the road safety strategy. Hence, it is essential that it is made clear that this is the authority's primary function. I hope the Minister will support this amendment.

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