Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2013 because it includes three important areas of reform. I congratulate the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and commend the Minister for his courage in introducing some of the necessary changes to road traffic legislation. It has been said to me that the Bill continues a piecemeal approach to road traffic legislation. I note that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has embarked on a revision and consolidation of statute law in various areas. The Minister said he would bring forward further amendments on Committee Stage.

I commend the fantastic contribution made by members of the group known as Promoting Awareness, Responsibility and Care on our Roads, PARC. A number of PARC members, led by their chairman, Ms Susan Gray, are with us in the Visitors Gallery. PARC has consistently engaged with the Minister and his Department to promote and realise key reforms of road traffic legislation. We see the fruit of that here today.

I also commend the outgoing chief executive of the RSA, Mr. Noel Brett, for his tremendous work in recent years. I was the Labour Party's transport spokesperson for a fair number of years and watched the work of Mr. Brett and his chairman, Mr. Gay Byrne, at close quarters. Unfortunately, as other Deputies have said, this year we have had a regression in road safety figures. We had done outstanding work to reduce the number of fatalities to 162, but already this year we have lost 145 people, an increase of approximately 17 on the same period last year. Since this is happening on the Minister's watch, it is critical that it be reversed. The Minister and his officials should examine what the causes might be and whether the Garda Síochána and the RSA are properly resourced. I agree with the Deputies who spoke about the quality of roads. In west Dublin and the Dublin Bay north area many roads have deteriorated badly, and we urgently need to address that issue.

Part 2 of the Bill contains new provisions concerning graduated driver licensing, which I warmly welcome. The definition of a novice driver is contained in section 3. The novice period is two years after the issue of a person's driving licence on successful completion of a driving test. Section 4 outlines the requirement for a novice driver to display an N plate or tabard in a public place. The Australian states Victoria and New South Wales first introduced a programme of graduated driver training and invigilation. Unfortunately, it has taken us almost 50 years to bring a similar system into this country. It is reflective of the RSA's recommendations about learner and novice drivers. The Road Traffic Act 2010 introduced the concept of a novice driver into Irish law, but contained little restriction on novice drivers. I disagree with one of the previous speakers about some of those restrictions. Unfortunately, our experience is that they are well merited given the terrible tragedies we have had with young people's deaths over the years. PARC has pointed out that according to its research, in the last three years more than 140 learner drivers were involved in fatal and serious collisions, and 119 of these were driving unaccompanied at the time of the collision. PARC has highlighted practice in Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK of applying penalty points to learner drivers who are apprehended while driving unaccompanied. PARC notes that learner drivers who drive unaccompanied or fail to display L plates receive three penalty points in Northern Ireland. This is compared to two points upon payment of a fixed charge for these offences under section 10(d) of the Bill, which amends Schedule 1 of the 2002 Act. I assume the Minister might re-examine the different standards in the two jurisdictions, particularly when we are, hopefully, achieving an all-Ireland standard.

I welcome the reduced penalty points limit for disqualification for learner drivers. I acknowledge the Minister's courage in introducing that section of the Bill. The reduction in the limit from 12 points to six for learner and novice drivers recognises the determination of the whole community. The rationale is to prevent risk-taking, especially by young men, who are often very interested in vehicles and mechanics but who also, unfortunately, have a tendency to drive very fast. It also reflects similar practice in other jurisdictions, such as the UK, New South Wales and Ontario.

Part 3 of the Bill makes provision, in section 10, for 11 new categories of penalty points offence and increases the number of penalty points for other offences that are already contained in Schedule 1 of the Road Traffic Act 2002. This arises from the Department's review of the penalty points system, which was forwarded to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. I welcome the process of consultation, particularly the increase from two points to three points for the offence of driving while using a mobile phone. It is astonishing how many people are driving around while talking on their phones. We seemed to have addressed that a couple of years ago, but we have now had a serious slippage.

I welcome the addition of new categories of road traffic offence outlined in section 10(g). I wrote to the Minister about the expiry at the end of this month of the derogation from the maximum height applying to heavy goods vehicles, HGVs, on our roads. Our limit of 4.65 m is the highest in the EU and the Minister has said the derogation for vehicles above 4.65 m will not be extended past the deadline of 31 October 2013. I ask him to glance at that again.

We know legislation alone will not tackle the problem of the increased number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. Unlike in a number of other national policy areas, it is notable that one Department makes the law and another enforces it. The Minister might examine that in terms of the number of fatalities on the roads this year. Just this week a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, revealed that a significant number of drivers are escaping fines imposed through the penalty points system. This thorough examination of the system during 2011 and 2012 found that fixed charge notices were issued for almost 850,000 drivers, but the report contains a number of disturbing findings. Approximately 11% of all recorded fixed charge notice cases ended without the fine being paid or answered in court. Discrepancies were found in the termination of penalty points by the Garda Síochána. The report also found that up to one in five drivers are escaping fines from fixed charge penalty notices. Even in financial terms it seems astonishing that this area is not being further invigilated by the Minister's Department. Hopefully this Bill will be another step forward in ensuring all penalty points fines are dealt with properly.

The final significant part of the Bill before the House today concerns the testing of incapacitated drivers. Part 4 of the Bill amends the provisions contained in sections 11, 14 and 17 of the Road Traffic Act 2010. The replacement section 11 outlines the obligation on a member of An Garda Síochána to perform impairment tests, and I welcome the clarifications in that provision. Section 12 of the Bill outlines important amendments in the area of taking blood from an unconscious driver. I particularly welcome the inclusion in section 12(b) of the obligation on the Garda to send the blood specimen to the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and to retain part of the sample for the driver if he or she wishes to be provided with his or her own sample. Hopefully, this will address one of the most contentious and disturbing aspects of the investigation of crashes in this country and will lead to some sort of process of closure for families who are tragically bereaved.

It is significant that we are now finally enacting strengthened provisions in regard to the testing of incapacitated drivers so that our laws will be similar to those of many other jurisdictions, including Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand and many of the OECD countries. As the Minister is aware, PARC has strongly recommended the inclusion and enactment of a provision to allow for the testing of an incapacitated driver following a serious road traffic collision. This will bring us into line with equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Significantly, the IMO has also called on the Government to ensure that all drivers, whether conscious or unconscious, are tested for alcohol and other drugs following a crash where a person is injured. The Minister has discussed this with the IMO, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and the Garda Commissioner. This is a major step forward and I commend the Minister on it.

The Bill does not include a number of important areas that have been highlighted by other Deputies and by me in previous years. For example, Deputy Dooley introduced a Private Members' Bill providing that a driver in a hit and run collision where any person was injured or required assistance would be guilty of an indictable offence. This is an issue I hope the Minister will address when the Bill goes to Committee Stage.

Decades from now, people may well ask why anybody should have died on our roads over the years when such a simple of mode of transport was used. I note the comments made by our colleague from Meath about it being a privilege to be a driver. That is true. In time to come we may well look back at some of the figures that astonish us now. Surely we can imagine a situation in which only small numbers, perhaps in the single digits, form the casualty rate for a small State like ours. We have lost some of the momentum built up over recent years, in which death rates were consistently reduced. However, we have lost 17 extra people tragically this year compared to the same period last year. Families and communities have been left devastated as a result. We heard at first hand from one of our colleagues of the tragedy of losing his daughter. The Minister needs to redouble his efforts in this regard. He has said he will do this, but he needs to liaise with the Minister for Justice and Equality on it.

The Minister and I have some serious differences with regard to budgetary and economic matters. I believe this area is one that needs to be ring-fenced. In my experience and that of many Deputies, measures such as road checks seem to have disappeared from our roads. In 2010, when the Act became law, checkpoints were seen regularly around the greater Dublin area and people were breath-tested regularly. This practice seems to have almost died out. There are issues with regard to resources, the traffic corps and enforcement. However, it is the responsibility of this Minister and the Minister for Justice and Equality to ensure this Bill is relentlessly enforced.

I welcome the Bill as it will help to promote road safety and ensure that adequate measures are in place to punish those who commit road traffic offences. I hope the Minister will come back on Committee Stage with amendments covering some of the issues I have raised.

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