Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State's comments that he is willing to take on new ideas. I hope, in the first few months after the election, the Government will be much more relaxed about taking on our ideas. We welcome the fact that this motion was taken responsibly and has been accepted. I also welcome the Cabinet decision yesterday to do some of the things outlined in this motion. However, I am a bit annoyed by some of the Minister's comments last night criticising Fine Gael's statistics. Everybody uses statistics to win an argument. We need to get away from fighting over figures. Any life lost on our roads is one too many. We have all been to funerals week after week of people who have lost their lives prematurely. We must stop clapping ourselves on the back when road deaths are down to 250 or 350 and set real targets. I have complained before about the target the chairman of the Road Safety Authority thinks is good enough. Any death is one too many. There is an imperative on the Government to do whatever has to be done to reduce the level of incidents and accidents on our roads. I say incidents, because what we often call accidents are actually avoidable and are therefore incidents.

Following the inquest during the week, I received a letter from a driving instructor in Navan raising a few issues with me. The reports on the inquest dealt mainly with road signage and how we need to improve it. We missed out on the fact that the main problem was tailgating. My constituent made the point that this should be put into general driver education, with more advertisements on television about the issue. The driving instructor also mentioned that the number of cars on the road is a major issue, and the lack of public transport is a big factor in putting more cars on the road. It is also part of road safety to try to do more for public transport and that is in the brief of the Minister. The instructor pointed out to me that his own daughter has to travel across back roads to college in Maynooth, because public transport does not facilitate her. It costs more than €200 per week to have and maintain a car, money which could be put into public transport if we do it right.

Any person who drives on our country roads knows that a car will tailgate him if he is driving within the speed limit. The letter stated that we should either remove speed restrictions or enforce them, but there is no point in having speed restrictions on our county roads if they are not enforced. We see gardaí on the main roads and on dual carriageways, but it is just as important that they are on the back roads. Drivers must be afraid that the Garda could be anywhere. They must believe they could get caught anywhere, but most drivers know that the chances of being caught on a back road at the moment are very slim. They take advantage of that, which is a shame and which is dangerous.

I want to mention a few junctions on our national routes in County Meath, such as Ross Cross, Tara na Ri, Martry, as well as the turn-offs into Kells, Carnaross and so on. There are many junctions in Meath to allow people turn off the national routes and the secondary national routes. Until we get our motorways and bypasses in place, we must have these junctions lit up properly so that there is better visibility.

We are missing a chance in the area of education. We do not really educate ourselves how to drive properly. The driving test does not reflect a modern society and the time required to learn how to drive is not realistic. A driving licence should be a privilege that must be earned, not a right. Such education must begin in primary and secondary schools. The entire issue of road safety for pedestrians and road users should be taught in primary schools while the acquisition of the skills needed to drive a car should be taught at secondary school.

Ireland has a problem in that many people, young and old, believe themselves to be invincible. Such an attitude to driving is wrong and they do not believe they will either experience or cause a crash. However, when such people are asked whether they believe they will win the lottery, they reply in the affirmative. They are fully convinced they have a chance to win the lottery and buy tickets every week. However, they do not believe they will crash their cars. Such an attitude is wrong and must be fixed through education and the teaching of the requisite driving skills. Such education should not be limited to school because many people have acquired licences easily in the past and such individuals should be reassessed. I do not suggest they should be retested because that would induce fear of failing the test. Instead, such individuals should be reassessed with the aim of fixing the problems rather than catching them out, to make matters better and safer on the roads.

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