Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an mBille seo. I welcome this Bill as it clearly intends to deal in new ways with the issue of road safety, a very important matter to many people on this island. Due to the small close-knit nature of our country, there are few people who have not lost someone on our roads or know someone who has.

I will make much use of the word “responsibility”. It is crucial to how we look at road use. To get into a car and sit behind the wheel is to take on a responsibility. Cars have the potential to be fantastic, individually liberating machines but they also have the potential to be very dangerous under the control or lack of control of an irresponsible person who drives intoxicated, drives too fast or does not obey the rules of the road or take note of fellow road users or pedestrians. The law should protect the responsible from the irresponsible and punish those who take no care for the life and safety of others. It also must engender responsibility in those who seek to use the roads.

There are inherent dangers in operating a motor vehicle on a public road. It will never, save for a massive leap in technology, be a completely safe endeavour. While one death or injury will always be too much, especially for family and friends, years of dedication to tackling road safety by successive Governments, local authorities, the Road Safety Authority, media outlets, community groups and, of course, the Garda has led to a dramatic drop. The well-used term "carnage on our roads" is in this era leaning towards hyperbole. We should be glad of this. It is to our credit as a society, but we should not rest on our laurels.

The operation of a vehicle on public roads is a serious undertaking which should be done responsibly and should only be open to those who treat it as such. This is where the Government’s role is most crucial in ensuring those who should not be on the road are not, those who need to be more responsible are corrected, those guilty of irresponsibility are reprimanded and those who seek to use the roads are suitably trained and monitored in their progress to fully fledged and certified drivers. Any further changes that can be made which would improve safety, while not negatively affecting the public's ability to get from A to B responsibly, are welcome.

The introduction of an N-plate is a good step. Reports from the use of this system, known as graduated driver licensing, are positive, showing improvements in driver skill and a reduction in road fatalities. The system means that a new driver will for two years after successful completion of his or her driving test have to display a N-plate or tabard similar to the one displayed during the learning period, with “N” standing for novice. Novice drivers will be under closer scrutiny and will have fewer opportunities to make mistakes and carry on driving than other drivers. This probationary period means that new drivers will have to remember their lessons and the formal rules of the road much better for a longer time, allowing them to become better drivers and giving time for proper road use to be fully ingrained in how they behave. This system will clearly weed out drivers who are not yet suitable while providing encouragement to newly licensed drivers to continue to improve and not to think that, now that they are fully licensed, they can drive with reckless abandon.

I have concerns about plans in the future for a requirement that applicants for a driving test must have a certain amount of accompanied driving experience that can be certified. Proper professional training for something as serious as road use is essential and I am happy that future drivers will have this. However, it presents a financial barrier to many in a time of great difficulty. Being able to drive is not only a skill that opens up a number of careers; it is also a skill that allows people to access employment in different geographical locations and to widen their search for employment. If someone who is currently unemployed wanted to learn how to drive, the expense of paying for lessons could easily be out of their reach. I am aware of individual cases in which people on social welfare were supported in getting driving lessons, but some formal entitlement to those who would benefit from these skills should be part of the social welfare training programme. Will the Minister consider this and raise it with the Minister for Social Protection?

This point is also relevant to young people, especially from communities with long-running problems with joblessness and educational disadvantage. Schools should be equipped to provide some driving-skills training and young adults who would be disadvantaged by the cost of meeting new licensing requirements should be accommodated. If a young man or woman wants to access employment but cannot because he or she cannot afford to get the skills necessary, then the blame falls at the door of the Government, which has a responsibility to ensure access to training needed by the public for economic prosperity.

I support the use of stiffer penalty points for some offences. Road use is a serious business and those who cannot behave with the responsibility required for safe road use should not be tolerated, whether that means the corrective influence of points, fines or suspension, or the last resort of disqualification.

I am concerned by the potential implications of changes to allow the taking of a blood specimen without consent from an incapacitated person involved in a road accident. Of course we need to know if people involved in road accidents were intoxicated and whether this contributed to the accident, but we must also seek to respect the bodily integrity of individuals and be mindful of the potential minefield of allowing such waivers to consent. The taking of such samples can be very time-limited and while it is understandable that the gardaí, who have to deal with so many tragic cases, would want to ensure that someone who was intoxicated and caused an accident will be punished, we must also protect individual rights. This kind of legislation was brought in nearly ten years ago in the UK and I have not heard of many problems arising from it, but it is clear that in a state where people are detained for months and years on end without trial, civil liberties can become an afterthought or an inconvenience. I ask the Minister to consult with rights groups such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and ensure this provision is respectful of the rights of individuals to bodily integrity in these cases.

Another matter of serious concern is penalty points and fixed charges. These have been successful in reducing road deaths but there are serious questions over how the system is managed and monitored. It is believed that approximately 4,000 fixed penalties were cancelled and people were able to avoid paying for their offences without any explanation. This has led to very worrying concerns that there is corruption behind some, if not all, of these cancelled penalties. A member of the Garda who came forward regarding this and became a whistleblower subsequently lost his job. This is nothing short of scandalous. The lack of review is particularly hard to take in these difficult economic times when the Government is pushing through cuts on local essential services but allowing this scandal to go unchecked.

Earlier, Deputy Clare Daly raised the need to allow for fixed penalties to be administered to company cars. This should be done as part of this Bill. The loss of revenue in that regard is also hard to take. On the issue of intoxication impairment testing - or field sobriety tests, as they are known in some parts of the world - it seems questionable whether or not these are in any way reliable in determining whether a random person is intoxicated. To drive the roads of the country, one does not need to be able to extend one's arm and touch one's nose, count backwards or whatever such a test might include. There is no norm in these relatively unstandardised tests and there is no evidence that they are effective in determining whether someone is under the influence or just a bit clumsy. Maybe the Minister has reviewed evidence that this is an effective method and, if so, I would welcome if he would share it with us.

My final point is the crucial one which will determine whether this Bill will be successful in curbing road deaths further. How will the Garda be resourced to implement many of these provisions? Over the lifetime of this Government, Garda hours, resources and allowances have been cut, opening hours of stations have been cut and stations have been closed. It is hard to see how gardaí will be able to do more and more, as required by this and other Bills, which are well-intentioned but are asking much of a profession that has been given little and is getting less and less.

I acknowledge the contribution of the chairman of the RSA, Gay Byrne, and I wish the chief executive, Noel Brett, the best in his new engagements. Both have done excellent jobs and performed miracles over the last number of years. During their tenure in the RSA we have witnessed a significant step forward in road safety throughout this country. This Bill, in general, is a further step forward in the process of making our roads safer and setting proper standards for those who use our roads. Sinn Féin supports this Bill in general and I look forward to debating it further.

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