Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I am glad the Minister and his colleague, the Minister of State, have prioritised this issue. This Bill has been in limbo for too long due to a lack of drive and action on the part of previous Ministers, but also due to human resources issues such as moving staff around, etc. I am disappointed that legislation that needs to be enacted for the right reasons often gets stuck in the system for the wrong reasons and that it sometimes takes strong Ministers, a team of both senior and junior, to push matters along. I appeal to staff in various Departments who need to move or change their work practices to engage, through their unions and through the various organisations, in a much speedier way in order that when matters are correct and everybody is in agreement on them, we get them done and can move on.

This Bill implements international best practice and many of the changes arising from the investigations following the two bus crashes, in Kentstown in my county of Meath and in Clara, County Offaly. Recommendations were made after those investigations because they were very tragic incidents and we had to take action.

The Kentstown school bus accident was mentioned by many Members. The crash occurred in May 2005 and I want to mention the five young people who lost their lives that day: Ms Amy McCabe, Ms Claire McCluskey, Ms Deirdre Scanlon, Ms Lisa Callan and Ms Sinéad Ledwidge. That had a serious impact on the community, the county and, most certainly, on their families. It is only right we are making changes that might prevent incidents such as that and that might lead to buses, lorries and commercial vehicles being kept in a better condition in order that such incidents would not happen again. There will always be occasional accidents, but in this country there have been too many. Incidents are avoidable and something could have been done to prevent them in these cases. It is only right we are implementing changes.

I welcome this Bill. It introduces common sense measures, such as a new system that will overhaul the testing regime for commercial vehicles. It will also bring in new spot checks for the testing centres which are needed. We also need spot checks on the side of the road, and I welcome those as well. These are logical steps in the right direction to try to ensure vehicles that are not roadworthy are put off the road and those in business who spend money ensuring their vehicles are in proper order and are fit for purpose get a fair chance to compete.

It is only right there would be a level playing field throughout the country. No more than one's address should not dictate the service one gets from the State, neither should it be the case that one can have a less roadworthy vehicle if one is from one part of the country rather than another. There must be a standard applicable throughout the country and this Bill will achieve that. It is only proper order. I welcome the change the Bill will bring about.

This legislation and other Bills the Minister and Minister of State have been driving forward form part of the provision of safer road transport in the country. The Bill complements the recent positive measures taken by the Government to encourage more people to use public transport as well as to increase road safety. In fairness, when money is tight, there have been many small initiatives, which I would call common sense measures, funded this year and last by the Government which will help improve road safety and make it easier for commuters to use the services. These include, in my area, luckily enough, funding for the provision of new mini park-and-ride facilities along the R147, previously the N3, serving the Silver Tankard, Garlow Cross and Ross Cross areas. We were years campaigning for funding for these simple park-and-ride facilities to take cars off the road and out of the way, and also to make it easier for those who want to park their car and get on the bus. These are simple, common sense, low-cost measures and yet it took years to get them done. Thankfully, this Minister and his team in the Department have come with a new approach of getting things done that will allow a big difference to be made, where possible, for small amounts of funding.

In many areas, especially in my county, new permanent bus stops have been provided. We got a few last year and more this year, including at Martry. These are essential to make it easy for bus drivers to pull in. Where they often had to pull in at seriously dangerous spots on main roads to take on passengers, they now have a proper place where they can pull in and passengers can board and disembark safely. That is only right and I commend the Minister, and his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, because this is happening throughout the country.

Related to that and in the context of school buses and the tragedy of the victims of the Kentstown bus crash, we need to improve the areas where pupils are dropped off from school buses. There have been major improvements on national bus routes, to which I have referred, but I stated years ago when first elected to this House that there is no reason we cannot improve the areas where school buses have been stopping for decades. Even a small area of concrete cut into the embankment onto which one may step from the bus would provide a safer environment. In some cases it is still dangerous getting on and off a school bus.

There have been some improvements in the design of school buses but that is needed throughout the country. As we update the fleet and while I am aware the Department has done much work on this, the buses must be made much more visible and safe, with colour, lights, etc., to protect young people when they are using the buses.

We also need to introduce cameras onto buses. There have been many improvements to seat belts and changes to rules on school buses following the incidents of which we have spoken, but there also need to be cameras on buses, both to improve safety and also to do away with bullying. In the latter context, this is working quite well in the North. Yesterday we visited Stormont where the members of the Committee for Education there told us there have been major success in eliminating bullying and anti-social behaviour on buses by putting cameras on them.

I agree with Deputy Shane Ross regarding the necessity for continuous driver improvement and assessment. We would all benefit from having our driving skills periodically monitored. Such assessments should not be described as "tests", because that would only frighten people off the road. Rather, they should consist of taking a supplementary driving lesson and being offered advice on bad habits that may have developed over years so that one can return to the roads as a better driver. It is only by the grace of God that we do not have more traffic accidents. Major improvements have been made in recent years in terms of the road fatality statistics, but there are still far too many accidents. Continuous assessment of all drivers would help to reduce the volume of incidents, both minor and major. It should no longer be a case of obtaining a licence at 17 or 18 years of age and never again having to submit to an assessment of one's driving skills. We have spoken about this issue in the House and in committees on previous occasions and it is something we should seek to implement in the coming years.

See this speech in context