Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I warmly commend our Fine Gael colleagues, Deputies McEntee and O'Dowd, for initiating this important debate. It was only a few short weeks ago that we were discussing the new road safety strategy and general road safety issues in the House. However, week after week and day after day we hear of more of the awful incidents referred to by Deputy Fahey.

The press reported the tragic deaths of seven people on our roads over the past weekend, including people killed in Rathangan, County Kildare, Galway city, Tyrellspass, Ballinrobe and Poles. This highlights the ongoing scourge of deaths on our roads and the urgent need to make road safety a priority of the Government. If the Minister did nothing else but try to make this matter the main priority of Government, as other states such as France have done, he will have done a service in his time at the Department.

For 2007, the tragic death toll is currently 316, according to the latest figures I received from the Garda national traffic bureau. It is better than the figure for last year at this juncture but it will finish up significantly over 300. It is possible the figure will match that of 2003, when there were 335 tragic deaths, although I hope it will not.

If it was possible to tonight put in place measures to save the 20 or possibly 30 other lives which could be lost over the next three or four weeks, this House would have an absolute responsibility to take those measures almost as emergency legislation. I agree with the Minister in that motorists must accept a large amount of personal responsibility for their driving behaviour but the Government has, through its 11-year life, been appallingly slow to adopt an appropriate range of targeted measures to tackle speeding and other irresponsible driving behaviour. This was especially true until about a year and a half ago. There must be fundamental political leadership on the issue.

Even with the announcement in the budget last week of an additional €11 million for the RSA for testing, the figure is perhaps insufficient for the task it must complete in bringing about a ten-week waiting period for driving tests. I had previously noted that there was a divergence between the budget's target for the driving test on demand and what the Minister has repeatedly stated.

As the Fine Gael motion indicates, there are many question marks over the current operation of the penalty points system which the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, must urgently address. There may have been a heightened sense of road awareness and safety with drivers on Irish roads in the immediate aftermath of the introduction of penalty points and random breath testing, but these initial positive effects unfortunately appear to be starting to wear off. A renewed campaign is urgently required.

In that context I warmly welcome the premiere of the Road Safety Authority's safety film and action "Crashed Lives" which will be launched by the Minister. I also noted with pleasure over the weekend that the distinguished journalist Charlie Bird, along with his colleagues Samantha Libreri and Dympna Moroney, was awarded the overall news broadcast award for their series on road safety at the Law Society's justice media awards.

That series was very valuable in trying to change driver behaviour, especially Charlie Bird's visually shocking piece filmed when he drove to work in RTE from his home. He travelled just below the legal speed limit and could see car after car overtaking him and sailing into the blue yonder towards Dublin. The speed limit on the road in question, the N11, was being flagrantly broken again and again. That is characteristic of many of our national roads and motorways. Unfortunately that behaviour then goes on to secondary roads, like the famous roads in your constituency, a Cheann Comhairle, such as the road from Castletown to Kenmare, with which I am very familiar. On that very narrow road, people try to maintain high speeds totally inappropriately.

The Courts Service has rightly been extremely critical of the current method of dealing with motoring offences and has claimed that the system is simply not working and is clogging up the courts. Garda figures show that up to 50% of all motorists still fail to pay fines for offences such as speeding and the non-wearing of seat belts and that only 50% to 60% of traffic fines are being paid. Fixed penalty notices are issued to motorists in order to keep them out of court. However, in the first six months of 2007, the Courts Service reported that 88,000 summonses in respect of fixed charge offences came before the courts. The Courts Service has stated that urgent changes are necessary. While I welcome what the Minister has said, clearly we urgently need to bring forward the legislation on the payment of fines.

The Courts Service has suggested a number of alternative methods for the collection of fines for motoring offences, one of which I would not agree with as it includes a reference to private debt collectors. However, we could examine other strong mechanisms which could be effective. The Courts Service has also suggested the collection of motor fines should be considered at the same time that motorists pay their annual motor tax charges. The Minister has got his hands on the national vehicle file from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It should be possible for the national vehicle file to interface with the Courts Service records so that people applying for motor tax would not be allowed to renew unless their fines are paid. In other words, the penalty points on a person's licence should be increased if he or she has failed to pay the fine by that time. There is considerable scope to expand the role of the national vehicle file. I would like to know if the Minister is preparing such a Bill and if the heads are ready yet.

Shocking figures were released to me last week by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform — Members might have heard Deputy Gilmore raising the matter in the House. These figures revealed that 110,000 warrants are outstanding from the courts, including more than 36,000 outstanding bench warrants, which is a very serious indication of a major failure in the administration of criminal and civil justice. In reply to Deputy Gilmore, the Taoiseach indicated that only approximately 20 warrants were outstanding at any one time. However, that was certainly not the case. It makes a mockery of the court and legal systems.

A few weeks ago another report indicated that up to two thirds of drivers who accumulate 12 penalty points are not voluntarily giving up their driving licences as they are legally required to do. It is clear that the penalty points system is not operating effectively enough and if that continues, the system will be totally undermined. The Minister should bring the legislation before the House early in the new year and let us pass it.

One of the key objectives of the penalty points system was to tackle speeding on the roads. We need to consider some innovative measures in this regard. There are strong indications that speed is a fundamental factor in most road crashes. I have asked whether it would be possible to use limiters. We need to consider certain cars which are imported into this country and which have gauges showing they can achieve speeds of twice or three times our maximum speed limit. Why do we need such machinery in this country? It seems to be totally against the spirit of our legislation. I put the point to the SIMI that the Minister should take a proactive role with car manufacturers at European level. Our market for new car sales at 200,000 vehicles per year is sufficiently large and attractive for manufacturers, including the market leaders such as Toyota, Ford etc. that they should heed some of our requests like the need for a wiper on the rear windscreen of saloon cars, which most makes do not have. We should demand very safe vehicles and we should not put up with vehicles which crumble or are dangerous.

In August, it was reported that 108,000 out of 440,000 drivers who committed an offence liable to penalty points since their introduction in 2002 did not get any points put on their licences because they do not have Irish driving licences. This is one of the key problems the Minister needs to address, particularly regarding drivers from Northern Ireland, but also regarding drivers from eastern Europe and the UK. Earlier today, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport discussed how we would manage electronic tolls for people with foreign licences. In the next three or four months the Minister needs to take a very proactive role in this matter.

Mr. Conor Faughnan of the AA has asked for the instigation of a non-Irish driver licence file to be held alongside the national vehicle driver file and the Minister should take such an initiative. I commend Fine Gael for tabling this timely motion. I commend Deputies McEntee and O'Dowd for pursuing the issue in the Dáil. In some ways it is the most important issue for us to pursue. I know the Ceann Comhairle would take a leading role in anything the Dáil could do to ensure that for some of our citizens, who are now possibly leading happy lives, excited at the rest and enjoyment that comes at Christmas and the new year with family and friends and in our case with our supporters in politics, that type of atmosphere is not utterly destroyed by a tragedy in the family following a car crash. We should take a very proactive role in this regard.

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