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

Yes, exactly. One initiative which the Minister has introduced is to have a special speed limit in estates in urban settings. When I pursued the matter 15 years ago as leader of the rainbow civic alliance in Dublin City Council - the Labour Party was in a fortunate position in that it was the biggest party and Fine Gael was the smaller party - we called them home zones. The system was based on a Dutch model and the premise was that when one went into an urban estate, one dropped one's speed. At the time we aimed at 25 mph but the Minister is opting for 25 km/h. I agree with that also. It is a very useful initiative. We brought it forward but we floundered with the lack of activity and the lethargic approach of the then Department of the Environment, and later the Department of Transport. We could not get the measure through. I think of estates in my constituency in areas such as Marino, Donnycarney, Edenmore, Clonshaugh, Newbury and other places in Dublin Bay North, where one goes in off the main street and one is then in a residential area with seniors, children and families walking around doing their business and one must slow down immediately. I would like to see more signage on roads, not written on small signs, giving the home zone speed limit. That would be a very useful contribution to the protection of life for urban Ireland if the Minister were to introduce it, given the number of pedestrians involved. It could apply in all towns. I wish the Minister well in that regard. I hope it happens.

I presume the Minister will do that as part of a future road traffic Bill. I am not sure whether the Minister can do it unilaterally, by regulation. If so, I look forward to that.

On the general issue of road traffic legislation, I refer to a series of four articles, to which, perhaps, other Members referred, written by The Irish Timesjournalist Peter Murtagh, entitled "Anatomy of a Car Crash". The articles refer to a terrible crash that happened on the very first day of 2014. In an outstanding piece of journalism, Mr. Murtagh analyses all aspects of that disaster, which resulted in the deaths of two men and horrendous sadness for their families and all of their friends. By the way, he refers to this as "the ripple effect" on the close-knit communities around the two deceased. It brings home vividly the disaster of one terrible crash and two communities ripped apart. In his articles, Mr. Murtagh goes down through the different elements of it. For instance, he covers the inquest, which occurred in October. When reading it, I was reminded that, as marine spokesman for the Labour Party for many years, I was one of those who campaigned for the provision of marine safety reports on disasters at sea when someone is lost or suffers serious injury. We used get the hard copy, but now the Minister e-mails the report of each incident to us. The Murtagh articles made me think it would be interesting to receive a full report on every crash in which somebody is killed or seriously injured. Obviously, it would entail major resources, but it would be important. It is something worth thinking about, to bring it home to us. One hundred and eighty-eight is merely a number. If the deceased had died together, there would have been a public inquiry, a major report or something similar. It is something on which the Minister might reflect to see if there is some way we could go forward in treating every one of those deaths as a major disaster, which it is for the country and for the citizenry as well as for the close connections.

As I stated, I am supportive of the Bill. Texting while driving was dealt with in the Road Traffic Act 2006 (Restriction on Use of Mobile Phones) Regulations 2014, which created the offence of accessing data on a mobile telephone while driving or texting while driving. I asked the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, for data on texting, but she could not provide it. It is still upsetting for all of us who drive safely on the motorway anywhere around the country or in the city to see somebody talking away on their mobile telephone and, perhaps, driving erratically. In reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister stated that the Courts Service indicated that the relevant IT systems were updated with a new offence code on 7 December 2014 and, consistent with normal recording procedure, it will be a number of months before any meaningful data can be provided. That is something of interest to citizens, who also recognise that mobile phone use and texting are important problems.

I note the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, indicated that he will take action on drug testing. I used talk constantly to his predecessor about the possibility of introducing the systems they have in places such as Victoria and New South Wales in Australia to identify drug usage, because that has been a factor in so many crashes, and the reply was always that there is no adequate testing, except for the initial legislation that the Government brought in recently.

I also wanted to ask the Minister about the supply of data from the National Vehicle and Driver File, NVDF, which is another important element of creating a regime. In a parliamentary reply, he told me that the system would start on Wednesday, 17 December, with one insurance company. This relates to drivers who have a bad track record, have not been behaving properly and have not brought their driving to a much better standard. This will be on such a driver's record for insurance purposes. It is another safeguard for the driving public.

I welcome the Bill. It is unfortunate that we must do this. Although the Government may not have that long to go, the Minister might take a stab at least at putting in place some sort of process of consolidating road traffic legislation. As Deputy Penrose stated eloquently, that would be something we could all understand and adhere to. As I stated, I welcome the home zones. Perhaps the Minister would also take a look at the reporting system for terrible crashes.

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