Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I am generally supportive of the objectives of the Bill. While there is no doubt that legislation is needed, for example, to make illegal the use of hand-held mobile phones while driving, it is enforcement, not legislation, that brings about results, as we saw clearly with the introduction of the penalty points. While one might ask what if the deployment of resources continued, the Irish Presidency of the European Union then kicked in and certainly broke the momentum. When the levels of enforcement fell, the levels of compliance fell. Legislation, of itself, will not make an impact, no matter how good it is. That sent out a clear signal which people understand.

Many of the measures that will assist in reaching the targets set out by the European Union are already in existence. There are mountains of data at local authority level, where the Garda and the members of the roads departments in local authorities go out and map locations where there have been serious injuries or where there has been a fatality. One can clearly see the cluster areas where, for example, the roads are a contributory factor. Where there is a profile of accidents, rather than merely collecting data, the authorities should respond. Instead they wait for the provision of a dual-carriageway to bypass a town.

Often it is a matter of road maintenance. Local authorities not cutting grass verges and developers leaving debris on the road, for example, lead to climbing accident rates. These might seem like small matters but they can be dealt with immediately. My point is that this is not about legislation.

Driver behaviour in terms of speed, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and the use of hand-held devices contribute to accident rates. One trend that has become a real scourge is that of the night-time boy racers. I refer not to the lads in cars with flashy hub-caps, in which the radio volume is raised to the point where the car almost has a rhythm of its own, but to organised racing at night-time, which is evident in most communities. That is becoming a serious problem.

It is very annoying that available resources like the GATSO van and hand-held devices for speed checks are deployed, for example, at 9 a.m. outside Liffey Valley almost every Sunday morning when there is little traffic or outside Heuston Station on the way out of town where there is not a single pedestrian in a segregated situation. This results in the Minister losing the goodwill among motorists for enforcement and compliance. They see that it is a matter of shooting fish in a barrel and of income generation rather than a road safety issue.

Another important issue relating to road safety, which one will not see in a Bill like this, is the need to increase public transport. If one gives people an affordable means to get to and from work, one will reduce the number of people at risk. That can be done by use of the small public service vehicles and the taxi system, which is becoming a nationwide entity due to the designation of taxi-meter areas. The dispute with the taxi interests in this regard must be tackled head on because such designation will make a meaningful contribution.

Last night I attended a meeting of an organisation, the Kildare Road Users Association, that has just been set up by various interests to see what can be done by people generally to improve safety on the roads. At the meeting a young man in a wheelchair as a result of an accident relayed his experience and what he wants done about ensuring road safety is prioritised. There have been several meetings of that association in Kildare. There is no doubt that there is goodwill among the public for proper enforcement. Unless this Bill and other measures are matched by adequate resources, people will feel badly let down and the carnage on the roads will continue.

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