Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Essentially, section 3(1) has only one purpose, namely, to put an end to the dangerous practice of holding a mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle. The subsection has been drafted to make it illegal to drive a motor vehicle while holding a phone by hand, or supporting it by the neck, shoulder or any other improvised or contrived methods involving the body. It is fair to say that this prohibition enjoys total support in the House, including Deputy Crowe. I would be concerned about changing the nature of the prohibition through extending its application to include any hand-held piece of equipment, as proposed by the Deputy, because a level of unnecessary complexity and ambiguity would be introduced to subsection (1) that would dilute its effectiveness.

The power to impose prohibitions or restrictions on the use of mobile phones, in-vehicle communication devices, and information and entertainment equipment for the purpose of preventing or avoiding driver distraction arising from the use of an array of in-vehicle technologies and other equipment on the market, which is what the Deputy is referring to, is given to the Minister in section 3(4). This power will be exercised through the making of regulations by the Minister. We discussed this on Committee Stage. It would be the appropriate way to deal with the many technologies and equipment which Deputy Crowe no doubt has in mind.

It should also be remembered that it remains open to the Garda Síochána to prosecute under the long-standing offences of careless driving for the inappropriate use of technologies and equipment referred to in subsection (4), or any other equipment. Given that the legislative framework is now in place to do this, I ask the Deputy to withdraw his amendment.

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