Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It is my job and responsibility, as a member of the Opposition, to identify potential difficulties in the legislation and I intend to do so. I will take my time and argue my points as we proceed through Committee and Report Stages. I hope we will have a stronger Bill when we complete our considerations. This is how parliamentary democracy works. No single person has a monopoly on wisdom in this area.

On the specifics of the Bill, section 3, which deals with mobile telephones, proposes to impose a ban on holding a mobile telephone while driving. I will repeat a point made earlier in this regard. The Bill does not appear to define the word "driving". I have not found such a definition in section 3 or elsewhere. Given the likelihood that this section will be contested, it is important to provide a clear definition.

The Bill proposes that the offence of driving while holding a mobile telephone will be established on the basis of the opinion of a garda. Many of the new penalty points offences are also established on the basis of the opinion or word of a garda. I foresee these types of provision being the subject of many challenges in the courts. How, for instance, will a garda establish that the item in the hand of a driver was a mobile telephone? Could the driver have been holding something else? I am concerned about the responsibility the provision to allow the opinion of a garda to be taken as evidence places on gardaí and expect it to be challenged in the courts.

I accept that difficulties have arisen with regard to definitions, for example, as to what precisely constitutes a mobile telephone. Many people use headsets which allow users to hold the telephone device in the ear. The definition "holding" in the Bill is to hold a telephone by hand or support it with "another part of the body". Given that one supports these types of headsets with one's ear, I presume they will also be outlawed. I cannot discern much difference between a headset and a hands-free mobile telephone placed in a cradle on the dashboard. Does the Minister intend to ban the use of these types of headsets while driving?

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