Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate. It is important to examine the context of the legislation. The number of deaths on the roads this year has reached 292, according to Garda figures. It is a sobering thought that by the end of this month or early next month, the reduction to 300 in road fatalities, which is the Government's target in its road safety strategy, will more than likely have been surpassed. The strategy has failed for one principal reason — complacency. Penalty points were introduced in October 2002 and had an immediate positive impact on road safety with road deaths declining significantly but, unfortunately, the number of deaths soon began to climb again.

A strategy was published in 2004 but we had to wait until this summer for the introduction of most of its key provisions. The most critical recommendation — the provision of additional speed cameras — has still not been implemented. These speed cameras are long overdue and the latest information is that it will be some time before the contract is even awarded for the designation and operation of the new cameras. This summer the long awaited introduction of random breath testing, similar to the introduction of penalty points, had an immediate positive impact on road fatalities but, rather than building on this, the Government yet again sat back. Reform of the driver licensing legislation, mooted for the autumn, has been postponed until the new year at the earliest, according to recent reports. A new road safety Bill, dealing with a long list of issues, which was promised for later this year, is off the agenda until at least early in the new year.

Many provisions of the Road Traffic Act 2006, which was rushed through the House, remain to be commenced by the Minister. True to form, Fianna Fáil never makes a critical decision until it absolutely must. That may be tolerable in other portfolios but not when it comes to the critical issue of road safety.

The Fine Gael Bill is welcome because it puts road safety back in the limelight and I hope the Minister accepts the need to do so. His approach earlier this year to deal with individual issues and get them out of the way does not serve the road safety agenda well because a constant focus on this agenda is required and he should strive to improve legislation in this area. When we debated the Road Traffic Act, the Minister accepted it contained many omissions and a number of road safety issues needed to be tackled in new legislation. He gave a commitment to introduce a new Bill but it will not be brought forward until next year at the earliest.

The Labour Party supports the Fine Gael Bill and we encourage all Members, if they are serious about tackling road safety, to support its speedy passage. The consolidation of road safety legislation is one of the most urgent issues facing us.

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