Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

With the agreement of the House, I will share my time with Deputy Michael McCarthy.

I am glad of the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I wish the new Minister for Transport and the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Kelly, the best of luck in their new Department and hope that road safety will assume the highest priority on their agenda. In the past, the Minister and I have clashed on economic policy but I hope we will agree on transport matters.

I also wish the former Minister, Mr. Noel Dempsey, well in his retirement. Unfortunately he was very lethargic in many areas that were key transport responsibilities and there were particularly unacceptable delays in many critical road safety programmes. In fact, it is part of this lethargic legacy that we are here today discussing this Bill, given the legislative agonies we went through last year over the 2010 Road Traffic Act. Colleagues spent a long time invigilating and amending the 2010 Road Traffic Act, which was supposed to be the most comprehensive legislation in years to deal with all outstanding road traffic and road safety issues, especially in relation to the lowering of the drink-drive limit.

A critical element of the 2010 Act was the introduction of mandatory breath testing of all drivers involved in a serious road collision, a provision which had cross-party support. Yet, apparently, we need to introduce an amending Bill to immediately implement the mandatory breath testing provision that was provided for in the 2010 Act. The incredible explanation for this legislative mess that we received from the former Minister is that the mandatory breath testing provision was inextricably linked to the introduction of the lower drink driving limit to 50 mg in Sections 9 and 14 of the Road Traffic Act 2010, which will not come into effect until September 2011. This delay in implementing the lower drink driving limit means that the mandatory breath testing provision has also been pushed back until the autumn. The question of why the lower drink driving limit and the mandatory breath testing of all drivers involved in a serious collision have to be introduced at the same time remains.

The lower drink driving limit has resulted in the need for recalibrated evidential breath testing machines for the decrease from the 80 mg to the 50 mg limit. It is still not entirely clear why mandatory breath testing had to wait for the lower drink-drive limit and the recalibrated evidential breath testing machines. I hope the new Minister may be able to provide some explanation for this astonishing legislative cock-up of the previous Minister.

Mr. Gay Byrne and Mr. Noel Brett of the Road Safety Authority, RSA, continue to do an outstanding job. While one death on the road is one too many, last year we had one of our best years ever for reducing road deaths and serious injuries. Unfortunately the Garda figures for this year are disappointing and there has been a worrying trend of an increase in road deaths in 2011. Some 56 citizens have tragically lost their lives on Irish roads so far in 2011, compared to just 39 for the same period in 2010. The Minister may remember that the number of accident casualties also increased in the year 2005. It will be a key responsibility for the Minister to ensure that we continue this downward trend. There can be no room for complacency. Maintaining a high level of road safety depends on being ever vigilant and maintaining high levels of enforcement.

During the debate on the 2010 Road Traffic Act, research by Dr. Declan Bedford was cited which indicated that only approximately 8% of surviving drivers from fatal road collisions are tested. The introduction of mandatory breath testing will clearly have a much needed deterrent effect on dangerous and intoxicated driving. It should also end the unacceptable anomaly of why some drivers are tested after a serious collision and others are not. This has had serious consequences after fatal collisions in the past. During my time as Labour transport spokesperson I was briefed on a number of tragic cases that involved these appalling types of circumstances, where it could never be determined if a surviving driver had been negligent, at fault or even over the limit.

Mandatory breath testing regimes are standard practice in a range of other countries including France, Poland and in the Australian states. I understand that in Great Britain and Northern Ireland the police are instructed to test all drivers for alcohol consumption at collision scenes.

Section 2 of the Road Traffic Bill 2011 amends the 1994 Road Traffic Act in terms of the provision of a preliminary breath specimen. During the Seanad debate on that Bill my colleague Senator Brendan Ryan, now Deputy Brendan Ryan, raised an important issue that has also been highlighted by outstanding national, Donegal-based road safety campaigners PARC. I understand their outstanding leaders Ms Susan Gray, Ms Ann Fogarty and Ms Donna Price are in the Visitor's Gallery again today. Deputy Ryan asked whether the 2011 Bill creates more ambiguity than the 2010 Act in terms of mandating for the provision of breath specimens, given that a test does not have to be carried out if it may be prejudicial to the health of the driver in the opinion of a Garda, as outlined in Part 2 (6) of the Bill. If a driver is clearly in a particularly serious state of ill-health and distress after a devastating crash it may be impossible to immediately carry out a breath test. However, as was raised numerous times during the debates on the 2010 Act, how can a garda make a medical judgment on a driver and the extent or limit of their injuries and whether they appear to be life threatening? This puts a massive onus on an individual garda to make a serious medical judgment for which he or she is clearly not trained. The PARC organisation has always suggested that breath testing should be medically-led. A medically trained professional should determine whether it may be prejudicial to a driver's health if they are subject to breath testing in the aftermath of a serious or fatal road collision.

Another valuable critique of the 2011 Bill by PARC is that there should be a follow-through clause for a driver who it has been decided will not be tested at the scene after a serious collision because of health or medical concerns for that same driver. If there is no follow-through clause, will the driver be sent straight home even though a devastating and fatal collision may have occurred? Why is the driver not directed to a Garda station or a hospital so their medical state can be properly evaluated to see whether a breath test is then possible? It would be very disappointing if the 2011 Act diluted this provision of the earlier Act.

There is an unquantifiably tragic human cost to thousands of families across the country each year due to deaths and serious injuries on our roads, but the carnage on our roads also creates a large economic and social cost to society. In 2008, for example, the estimated cost of the total number of fatalities and injuries in road collisions recorded by the Garda Síochána was €1.2 billion. This is a standard cost benefit analysis estimate. In this context, one of the ongoing sagas in the last Dáil was the issue of the need for new and recalibrated intoxilyser machines to implement the reduced drink driving limit. When I raised this issue with the former Minister in July 2008 he said then that it would "take to the end of 2009 or early 2010 to complete." I understand the current deadline for the introduction of the new recalibrated breathanalyser machines is the autumn of this year. I understand a preferred bidder has been selected by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and I hope the Minister will be able to tell us at the conclusion of this debate where we stand on this matter.

I would also like to bring to the Minister's attention the impact of the Road Safety Authority's TV advertisement campaign, following a cut of €5 million from the RSA's budget in last December's budget. These advertisements are, undoubtedly, often shocking, but chief executive of the RSA, Mr. Noel Brett, has previously stressed that TV is one of the most powerful medium's to get the road safety message across. We need to do that, following recent tragedies.

In addition to initiatives in detecting illegal and dangerous driving on our roads, the other critical element of road safety is enforcement. This can be clearly seen on bank holiday weekends when a massive road safety campaign is undertaken by the Garda Síochána and the RSA to detect speeding and other dangerous driving behaviour. There is usually a clear and obvious reduction in collisions and fatalities on our roads during these holiday weekends when the Garda traffic corps is out in force. It is a pity that we cannot see this level of enforcement throughout the year.

On 12 January last, in a reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern informed me that in December 2009 there were 3,439 mandatory alcohol testing, MAT Garda checkpoints and that 47,994 roadside breath tests were carried out at those checkpoints during the same month. Yet, in December 2010 there were just 2,813 MAT Garda checkpoints and only 26,640 roadside breath tests at the checkpoints in the same period. The Minister rightly highlighted the different weather conditions in the most recent Christmas. Even allowing for that, there has clearly been a decline in the number of checkpoints. Last June, former Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy confirmed to me at the Committee of Public Accounts that there was a massive drop in mandatory alcohol tests from 79,423 in 2008 to 55,285 in 2009.

In addition, he explained there had been a massive drop in the number of Garda checkpoints from some 80,000 in 2008 to 55,000 in 2009 and fewer again in 2010. This highlights one of the problems of road safety, namely, that two Departments are involved and the Department of Transport does not have the ultimate enforcement powers.

Another issue I wish to raise with the Minister is the increasing problem of drug driving. I welcome the focus the RSA has put on this issue, with new media campaigns highlighting the devastating impacts of drug driving. The Road Traffic Act 2010 introduced preliminary impairment testing for drug driving. I welcome the report in yesterday's Irish Independent that up to 9,000 gardaí are in training for a significant clampdown on drug driving through the use of roadside checks. However, I hope that, in contrast to the former Minister, Mr. Noel Dempsey, the new Minister will finally push forward even stronger new initiatives to tackle the growing and pernicious problem of driving while under the influence of drugs.

The Minister should strongly investigate the suitability of random roadside drug testing programmes which would also introduce a significant deterrence factor for those drivers who have taken illegal drugs. I have previously cited a 2008 investigation by the Hibernian insurance company which reported that more than 20% of drivers under the age of 35 had driven while under the influence of drugs. A July 2009 survey from the CSO survey indicated an 81% increase in drug driving since the previous year. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg, however, as there is no random roadside drug enforcement and testing regime.

I repeatedly asked the previous Minister, Mr. Dempsey, during the last Dáil to consider the initiatives already in place in the Australian states, in particular New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland, where saliva testing equipment is available and a police officer simply asks a driver to give a small specimen, with the result that the use of a range of intoxicating drugs can be identified. For some peculiar reason, the previous Minister and the Department seemed to suggest this was not possible in Ireland. When the Acting Chairman, Deputy Costello, was spokesman in this area, he raised the same issue.

We must address not only the issue of impairment through alcohol use but also impairment through the use of a range of other drugs, which is still not being sufficiently tested. I hope the Minister will address these issues in his reply and on Committee Stage. Again, I wish the Minister well and welcome the Bill.

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