John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure I will use all of the five minutes, although seeing that the turnout from the Opposition is so huge today, I might use a bit more than five. I want to echo some of the points made by Deputy Kyne when he spoke about the Minister's recent announcement with regard to the 80 km/h road signs on country roads with grass often growing in the middle of them, which were a bit incongruous to say the least. I am glad the Minister has taken a very common sense approach to that issue.

I also welcome the recent announcement of the latest updated road safety strategy. It has been striking in recent years that there has been a significant reduction in the number of fatalities on our roads but it also worth pointing out that those figures have started to increase slightly in recent months, so it is not an issue people can afford to be complacent about.

I want to raise two areas with the Minister in respect of this Bill. The first one relates to the clocking of cars - by that, I mean vehicles that have a particular number of miles or kilometres travelled that are sold by person A and eventually end up with person Z with less miles on the clock than there were originally. In respect of the NCT and the certificate and disc awarded to people once their cars have been tested, there is an opportunity for the mileage recorded at the time the test is carried out to be included on the certificate. I have been presented with a few cases recently where people who have sold cars have found out later that those cars were sold on with less mileage than when they were originally sold. The NCT certificate is an opportunity that can be used to put in writing the mileage of a car at a particular time to overcome this issue to some degree.

The other issue I wish to raise concerns learner and novice drivers. These are people who are either learning to drive or driving in the first two years after qualifying. Under the system of penalty points that applies to every driver, a driver is disqualified once they have 12 penalty points. There is a proposal that disqualification would come into effect at six penalty points for learner and novice drivers. At a time when there is also a proposal that three penalty points would be awarded for a speeding offence, this proposal would mean that for a learner or novice driver, two relatively minor speeding offences would result in disqualification, which is too draconian. I ask the Minister to look at the possibility of increasing the disqualification threshold for novice drivers from six to seven penalty points. It would ensure that relatively minor speeding offences would not result in the loss of a licence for a period of time because I do not think that is the purpose of the legislation.

Everybody must acknowledge that the penalty points system has been a success since its introduction. It has changed driving habits. I must admit that it has probably changed my habits. I have received a number of penalty points over the years like all politicians who are on the road night and day. It has changed my own driving habits and has worked but I do not believe learner and novice drivers should be penalised in the manner envisaged in this legislation and have their licences suspended after six penalty points and that a speeding offence would automatically generate three penalty points. That is too burdensome a suggestion and I ask the Minister to look at increasing the threshold to seven points

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