Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 10 and 103 together.

In December 2000, the transport sector of the North-South Ministerial Council approved a programme for enhancing North-South co-operation on road safety. The council agreed that joint road safety campaigns would continue to be promoted by the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and the National Safety Council in this jurisdiction, with one such campaign envisaged each year. Joint road safety awareness campaigns are particularly suitable for North-South co-operation. They generate economies of scale in terms of production costs and television and other media exposure. The Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and the National Safety Council have well-established co-operation arrangements in this area. Nine joint advertising campaigns have been developed by the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and the National Safety Council since 1999. The campaigns have targeted speeding, seat belt wearing, drink driving, vulnerable road users, motorbike safety, driver and pedestrian inattention and child safety.

The Road Safety Authority has taken responsibility for road safety advertising and promotion. It will continue to co-operate with the Northern Irish authorities in the area of road safety. A further joint campaign relating to child safety and seat belt wearing will be launched in Belfast on 3 October next. The Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, will attend the launch of the joint safety campaign on Monday. The issues of driver disqualification and offences which attract a lesser penalty are being dealt with at two levels. A framework for the mutual recognition of driver disqualifications is contained in the EU convention on driving disqualifications, 98/C216/01. The convention relates to disqualifications arising from a range of specified traffic offences including drink driving, speeding and dangerous driving. Irish legislation to support the application of the convention is contained in the Road Traffic Act 2002.

In advance of the convention fully coming into force and following a ministerial meeting of the transport sectoral group of the British-Irish Council on 9 February 2006, I have formally agreed with the UK junior transport minister to enter into bilateral arrangements on the mutual recognition of driving disqualifications, as envisaged in the EU convention. The UK junior minister wrote to me recently to advise me that the UK and Northern Ireland authorities are working to complete the necessary legislative and consultative processes to enable mutual recognition to be in place by April 2007. The various officials are continuing to work to ensure the necessary administrative arrangements are in place to enable the relevant administrations to recognise and take action on driving disqualifications occurring in the other jurisdiction.

In relation to lesser offences, the North-South work programme, as agreed by the North-South Ministerial Council, includes a commitment to examine the mutual recognition of penalty points between the Republic of Ireland and the North. Not only do separate penalty point systems operate in the two jurisdictions on this island, but the system that operates in Northern Ireland also differs from that applying in Great Britain. Therefore, it was agreed that it would be more appropriate to pursue the question of mutual recognition of penalty points on the basis of the operation of the three systems and that it would be more appropriate to deal with it under the auspices of the British-Irish Council. As Northern Ireland has the lead role for transport matters in the council, the authorities in that jurisdiction are taking the lead in considering this issue. It was agreed at the British-Irish Council meeting on 9 February last that officials should examine the prospects for greater co-operation in the treatment of road traffic infringements where the penalty falls short of disqualification. Arising from the work in this area, I have agreed with the UK junior transport minister the terms of reference which have been proposed for a study of the feasibility of greater co-operation between us on lesser road traffic infringements, with a view to our officials undertaking a study on that basis and reporting back to us next year.

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