Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

As Minister, it is a pleasure to be able to bring before the House the Road Traffic Bill 2016. There has been much talk over this year about new politics and new and more co-operative ways of doing Dáil business. Road traffic legislation is an area which can point the way. This has always been a remarkably non-partisan aspect of legislation, which attracts constructive engagement from all sides. I will be happy to consider all sensible amendments proposed.

We all agree on the fundamental reason for road traffic legislation, which is the safety of road users. This is paramount to the public and to all of us. We may at times have disagreements about the best ways to promote road safety but they are reasonable and practical disagreements about what will work best and they generally give rise to very constructive discussions. This is an area of policy happily free from ideology. There are ideas which work and ideas which do not work and the history of the House when it comes to debating road traffic legislation shows that we are all interested in arriving at better laws which work better and which, ultimately, make us all safer. The fact the Bill was the subject of detailed pre-legislative scrutiny and was changed quite substantially as a result is a testament to the kind of non-partisan approach which has always attended the discussion of road safety matters. The subsequent passage of the Bill by the Seanad was facilitated by constructive engagement from all sides.

If we look back 20 or so years, we can see there has been a remarkable improvement in safety on our roads. Although the number of vehicles has increased greatly, the trend in deaths on the roads has overall been downward. In 1997, deaths on our roads peaked at the astonishingly high figure of 472. After 1997, a steady trend brought deaths down to the historic low of 162 in 2012. It is a source of concern that the numbers then went up to 188 in 2013 and 194 in 2014. Last year, 2015, which was the joint safest year on record, saw a reduction in fatalities to 162, just 35% of the peak in 1997. While this is welcome, we should not forget that behind each and every one of these fatalities is a grieving family, friends and community.

Looking to the more immediate past and the present, however, the trends we are seeing are very worrying. The fact we had two years of increased numbers of deaths after the record low of 2012 should worry us all and I know it does. Moreover, the figures to date in 2016 show a disturbing increase on 2015. As of today, the number of deaths for our roads this year is 138, as against 115 on the same day last year. This is an increase of approximately 20%. Why is this? There is no one factor which can be blamed. We have to be aware that, as the figures get lower, relatively few incidents and relatively small factors can lead to a noticeable change. The experience of 2015 illustrates this well. Up to November of last year, 2015 was on course to being the safest year on record with even lower road fatalities than 2012. Sadly, this was changed by a sequence of fatal collisions, which made December 2015 the worst December for road fatalities since 2007.

The truth is that many factors affect road safety. There are physical factors, such as the quality and maintenance of our roads and the vehicles on them. Traffic planning and management which makes sense too have a role. Then there are the human factors, including driver training and experience, drivers' health, the danger of driver impairment from intoxicants, the risk of driver distraction and the enforcement of the law. There is also the sense of responsibility which everyone should have when they get behind a steering wheel.

The great improvement in road safety, which we have seen in the past two decades may be the result of initiatives in all of these areas. The quality of our roads has improved. Testing of private cars and commercial vehicles through the NCT has led to a higher standard of vehicles on our roads. We no longer see the kinds of rusty old cars which used to be ubiquitous on Irish roads. Improvements to the legislation on driver licensing have strengthened the driver learning process. Learners now have to undergo a mandatory programme of lessons before taking the driving test and the old culture of being a learner for life and not bothering with the test has been and is being tackled. The law has also been strengthened significantly in the area of drink driving.

While it is hard to measure attitudes and culture changes, many were beginning to believe that the culture of tolerance towards drink driving which we once had was waning. However, the pre-crash report on alcohol published earlier this year by the RSA revealed that alcohol was a factor in 38% of all fatal collisions between 2008 and 2012, with the loss of 286 lives. This made for shocking reading, particularly with regard to the number of younger people drinking and driving. The report stated that almost half, 43%, of the drivers in the report who had consumed alcohol were aged between 16 and 24 years. Some Members may have seen the finding last week from the Irish Examiner-ICMSA opinion survey, which showed close to 23% of those polled admitting to driving after three or more pints. This is a deeply disappointing and, indeed, disturbing figure, particularly after so many years of campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers of drink driving. We must ask the hard question on whether the long running campaign to eliminate drink-driving failed.

Many positive initiatives have been set out and driven through Ireland's successive road safety strategies, of which we are now on our fourth. The current road safety strategy, which runs from 2013 to 2020, sets out 144 actions to be carried out by my Department and other bodies. These actions cover the whole range of areas which can impact on road safety and we will not let up on implementing them so as to make people safer on our roads.

While my Department has led the way in policy and legislation, many groups and individuals have in the past played their part in improving road safety. These include the Road Safety Authority, which has made a contribution across a wide range of areas, including operating the NCT and commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing, regulating driving instructors, overseeing the driving test and running the National Driver Licensing Service. In addition, the RSA is responsible for education on road safety through schools, problematic public information campaigns, including drink-driving and engagement with other stakeholders such as cycling groups.

I particularly acknowledge the work of An Garda Síochána and its dedicated traffic corps. An Garda Síochána has taken the tools provided in law and used them to enhance road safety, enforcing the law with the aid of the fixed charge and penalty points system, mandatory breath testing for alcohol and the introduction of safety cameras. Nor should we forget the crucial role played by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety. The bureau may attract little publicity but each year it tests for intoxicants thousands of specimens taken from drivers. The bureau also supplies and tests the equipment used by the Garda for detecting alcohol and offers invaluable scientific expertise to my Department. Indeed, the bureau has had an indispensable role in developing the proposals for intoxicated driving contained in the Bill which I present to the House today.

I do not wish to pass over the work of the many dedicated voluntary and advocacy groups which in so many ways promote road safety and public awareness of safety issues. I know that many involved in this work have suffered losses themselves due to tragedies on our roads and I am very impressed at the way they have turned personal tragedy to such good purpose.

There is one point that I would like to re-emphasise. Safe driving is also a matter of individual responsibility.

Whatever laws we make, whatever work An Garda Síochána does to enforce those laws, however many good people strive to enhance road safety in so many ways, each driver is responsible for how he or she drives once he or she gets behind the wheel. All of the main causes of collisions on the roads have at least a large element of driver responsibility - speeding, driver intoxication, driver fatigue and distraction. Everyone who drives has a responsibility to obey the law, to keep within the speed limit, to remain observant and, above all, to know when he or she should not drive, especially if he or she is too tired or if there is the slightest risk he or she might be impaired owing to intoxicants. We have low permissible alcohol limits for a reason. Even a second’s delay in reacting because a driver is, however mildly, affected by alcohol can have disastrous consequences.

In recent years there have been several Road Traffic Acts, each of which has focused on particular aspects of road safety. The Bill has as its principal focus a set of new measures to combat intoxicated driving. When we passed the Road Traffic Act 2010, the Oireachtas provided a sound new basis for the law on driving under the influence of alcohol. It is time to do the same for the law on driving under the influence of drugs and the Bill will do so, taking advantage of advances in technology, as well as international experience in this area. The Bill also provides for a new special speed limit of 20 km/h in built-up areas. Currently, the default speed limit in such areas is 50km/h, with local authorities being empowered to reduce the limit to 40km/h or 30km/h on roads in their areas, as they see fit. They will also have an option of bringing it down to 20km/h.

The third major part of the Bill is intended to give legislative effect to a new agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom on the mutual recognition of driver disqualifications.

I would like to explain, in turn, what I am proposing in each of these areas and why. We all know the dangers of driving under the influence of intoxicants. The effect of even a small volume of alcohol or drugs may be a critical reduction in a person's ability to react in time to what is happening on the road. People must appreciate that they should not drive if there is a risk that their driving could be affected by intoxicants. Unfortunately, many do not act as responsibly as we might hope. That is why we need robust laws to deal with offenders who are risking their own safety and that of others. There was a major update of drink driving legislation in the Road Traffic Act 2010. This legislation is in itself very comprehensive and, with some amendments, continues to provide us with a sound basis for dealing with the problem of alcohol and driving. Clear and rigorous laws on their own are, unfortunately, not enough to change the way people behave. The 2010 Act makes it an offence to drive or be in control of a mechanically propelled vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant to such an extent as to be able to control the vehicle. "Intoxicant" in this sense includes both alcohol and drugs. In the case of alcohol, the Act goes further, making it an offence for drivers to have alcohol in their system above a minimum limit. In the case of the former offence, the prosecution needs to prove both the presence of the intoxicant and that the driver’s ability to control the vehicle was impaired. In the latter case, only the presence of alcohol needs to be proved. In 2010 the technology to deal with drug driving was still being developed and international experience was limited, especially by contrast to the vast body of evidence on and experience of drink driving. There have been great advances since. The technology is now available to enable gardaí to test for drugs at the roadside, analogous to the way in which they conduct roadside tests for alcohol.

The Bill will strengthen the law on drug driving in a manner similar to the existing law on drink driving. It will create a new offence of driving or being in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle with the presence in the blood of any of three drugs - cannabis, cocaine and heroin - above a specified minimum level. The Bill also provides the necessary legal authority for An Garda Síochána to conduct roadside tests for the presence of drugs and the essential underpinnings for these new measures by empowering the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, MBRS, to test for concentrations of the specified drugs and also to test and provide for An Garda Síochána the devices for roadside drug testing.

If anyone doubts the need to take action in this area, I advise him or her to read the bureau's 2014 annual report, the latest such report available. It showed that 58% of the 1,158 specimens tested for drugs were positive for at least one drug. Even worse, it also revealed that 53% of the specimens that had tested positive for drugs had tested positive for two or more drugs. What effect would this have on a driver? What kind of person gets behind the wheel in that state? As we cannot trust such persons to act responsibly, we must act to give An Garda Síochána the tools to protect us from them and them from themselves. Drug driving is a much more complex matter than driving under the influence of alcohol. It involves a multitude of substances, with a variety of implications for driving and also for testing. The Bill focuses on cannabis, cocaine and heroin, the most prevalent illicit drugs found by the MBRS when analysing specimens and the levels proposed for each of these drugs have been chosen based on scientific advice and the experience in other jurisdictions.

Some may argue that these new offences are excessive; they are not. These drugs can have a serious impact on ability to drive and making their presence in drivers an offence is no more excessive than the law on the presence of alcohol. Some might also argue that cannabis should not be included because some day it might be legalised, which would mean that we would have to amend the Bill, but they are wrong. Road traffic legislation has nothing to do with the legality of intoxicants. After all, alcohol is legal. Instead, road traffic legislation is interested in the risk intoxicants pose while driving. The impact of cannabis on the ability to drive safely will not change if it is legalised. The Bill does, however, take into account the fact that there is a legally licensed form of cannabis, a medication called Sativex. It is only recently available and likely to be prescribed to very few, as it will be used only in the treatment of a small proportion of multiple sclerosis patients. Under the Bill, anyone prescribed it will receive an exemption certificate from the new offence.

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