Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this motion and I compliment my colleague Deputy Fergus O'Dowd on bringing it before the House. I am in a unique position to speak on this subject as I had an out of body experience related to a motor accident in the past week. This motion serves to focus attention on the contributory factors leading to road deaths.

I believe that enough signs around the country indicating the presence of speed cameras will slow people down except those who always disregard the rules of the road. It is not always necessary to drive at the highest permissible speed. On some roads the highest permissible speed is far below the national speed limit but the national speed limit on secondary roads is far greater than the speed motorists should drive.

Many Members of this House have been members of local authorities and will know that planning permission for access to a main road can only be granted if at that spot there are 119 metres of clear vision in both directions. I went back to the scene of my recent brush with the next world to measure the road and found that the line of vision to the right at the T-junction was only 28 metres. Once a person has committed to turn on to that main road, he or she has no option but take the impact of the oncoming vehicle, as I did. Countless similar accidents have occurred through the years and at one location in my constituency 19 people were killed in 20 years. How long must this go on before we deal with the causes of these accidents?

I was glad to see the Minister performed a hand brake turn on the issue of the unfortunate provisional driving licence holders after the self-righteousness and political correctness of the preceding days that suggested everyone would be tested over a single weekend. I believe provisional licence holders are not the worst offenders and the statistics support this. It was very difficult for me to extract this information because the Minister only gave the answer to my question on this today and I have not yet received it.

I am informed that people who contest penalty points in court have a good rate of success and this might be noted by those who pay their fines on the spot. Ministers have refused to answer my questions in this regard but the evidence available to me suggests this is the case. We should have this information and if it is so, we should examine the situation to find out what is going wrong.

I assure the House that in the coming years each of its Members will receive penalty points as they will be unavoidable if cameras are to be spread throughout the country as has been suggested. I will be delighted if anyone can prove me wrong in four or five years but I believe this is how penalty points will be distributed. Road conditions and drivers not having due regard for them are the main cause of accidents.

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