Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

Along with other Members, I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister on his appointment and wish him well in his term of office.

I will make several general points on road safety before addressing the Road Traffic Bill 2011. I come from Donegal and as Deputy McConalogue mentioned earlier, we have seen the devastation caused by fatal accidents on our roads. In recent years a number of multiple fatal accidents have occurred in the county and we have seen the devastation that brings to communities and families. It is something nobody would want to see happening in any community and anything we can do here through legislation to ensure that our roads are made safer and our drivers drive more safely, and reduce the impact of these devastating deaths is to be welcomed.

Donegal County Council has an active road safety working group which has been working in recent years to raise awareness of road safety by working with schools. All the statutory bodies are represented on the working group, which has contributed to improving our safety standards in the county also. That is an area that should be examined by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government or perhaps the Department of Transport with a view to increasing funding for those vital preventative and educational measures.

Talking to young people in our schools, advising them and showing them the horrors that can happen when driving and things go wrong will help to keep them safe when they get behind the wheel, contribute to overall safety on our roads and, it is hoped, reduce the number of deaths.

Deputy Durkan and other speakers mentioned the condition of our roads, and I refer particularly to Donegal where we have more than 7,000 kilometres of roads. The condition of our road surfaces is a main contributing factor to many of the accidents that occur in the county. We must find ways to ensure that extra funding can be provided to Donegal County Council to ensure that the road surfaces can be kept in a reasonable condition. This would contribute to road safety and reduce the number of accidents we experience. In the recent cold spell serious damage was done to our local road network and the legacy of potholes and surface damage is ongoing. Donegal County Council must acquire extra funding to ensure those roads can be repaired.

I echo the comments of other Members regarding the provision and enhancing of rural transport, which is vital. A rural transport system in a county like Donegal, where more than 50% of the population is rural based, is vital. The ability to avail of transport is a major factor for everybody within the county, and particularly for elderly and young people, in terms of getting out at the weekend to socialise.

The Government should consider increasing the level of funding available for rural transport to provide and enhance those services and ensure that the transport providers can meet the needs of the people in their communities. If they can give the level of service people need it may ensure that fewer people will make the choice of driving at night and particularly during the critical times at weekends from 6 p.m. on Friday evening to 8 a.m. on Sunday morning when most fatalities take place. Alcohol is probably a factor in most fatalities on our roads. If we concentrate on building a transport network that gives people the choice to leave their cars at home it would go a long way to contributing to overall safety and reducing the number of road deaths.

The Bill is welcome. I note that these measures are due to come into force in September of this year. Why could they not be brought into force earlier and so save valuable Dáil time on this legislation? I have no problem supporting the Bill because it is vitally important. Implementing these measures has been shown to help reduce the number of fatalities on our roads. Increasing the level of enforcement has contributed to the reduction in the number of road deaths in recent years from an average of 23 a month to 20 a month in 2009. I hope we will continue to see ongoing reductions.

I have a query about section 3 and the obligation to provide a blood or urine specimen in a hospital. It struck me as odd that under subsection (6) a designated doctor or nurse can enter a hospital to take a sample from somebody who has been involved in a collision. Would it not be possible for the gardaí to designate a doctor in the hospital as required to take the sample? Would that not lead to the measures in the Bill operating more smoothly in the future? There would probably be a list of designated doctors in the area but the difficulty may be in contacting them at the time of night accidents take place and getting them to attend the hospital to take a sample. That is something that should be examined. I ask the Minister to look at that before Committee Stage. My reading of it may be wrong or perhaps I have not grasped the impact of it but if a garda could designate a doctor or a nurse in a hospital it would streamline the operation of the Bill and ensure samples are taken in a timely fashion.

As Deputy Ó Snodaigh mentioned earlier regarding cases where the person involved in the collision may be unconscious, we should consider whether the designated doctor could take a sample or determine how that could be worked. Some mechanism could be devised that would allow for that kind of sample to be taken and for the blood alcohol levels to be ascertained at that stage.

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