Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Member's motion and I commend Deputy O'Dowd on proposing it. Everybody can recall the dramatic changes in driver behaviour when penalty points were first introduced. Motorists drove more attentively and reached their destinations safely because they feared being caught by the penalty points system. The introduction of the system reduced road deaths by 20% in 2000. Within six to eight months, however, driver attitudes changed and motorists reverted to their old habits, resulting in a rise in road deaths because they realised they had a slim chance of being caught.

It is a challenge for the Government to change this and to make people realise that penalty points exist and we need to implement them and revive the original respect for them, not just out of fear of being caught and penalised. We need to use the system to place road safety at the forefront of motorists' minds. I urge the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, to take the Fine Gael motion on board.

The motion recognises the positive aspects of the penalty point system and the leading role it can play in reducing road deaths. It illustrates a real problem which causes difficulty for the Garda, the courts system and for law-abiding citizens. If the problem is not addressed now there will be chaos when hundreds of speed cameras are put in place as this Government intends. The court system is not able to cope with the workload and will come to a complete halt if the extra offences picked up by the proposed new cameras come into play. The Government must get its house in order before this change is put in place.

It is not right that the Government should preside over a penalty points system whereby those who commit an offence and pay the fine accrue penalty points on their licences while those who commit the same offence and let it go to court get away with it. This must not be allowed to continue.

The Minister has an opportunity to change this situation. If he will not listen to us he should at least listen to the Courts Service which has proposed good and practical ways of solving this problem. The Minister needs to act urgently on this matter of life and death and instil in every motorist the respect that penalty points commanded when they were first introduced. This can be achieved only by reform of the system. The Minister must show leadership and solve these problems to make our roads safer for all users in a real attempt to reduce the number of road deaths. I strongly support the Fine Gael motion and commend it to the House.

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