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

Up to yesterday, 148 of our fellow citizens were killed on the roads. That represents an increase of 25 on last year. Of course, the 148 families of these victims are totally devastated. In communities in virtually every constituency, people are being devastated by the ongoing carnage. Since the Taoiseach came to office in March 2011, approximately 1,000 people have died on our roads and perhaps 15,000 have been seriously injured. The chairperson of the Road Safety Authority, our former Dáil colleague, Liz O'Donnell, has drawn attention once again to the fact that under this Taoiseach, successive Administrations have slashed the size of the Garda traffic corps by half, from approximately 1,200 around the time of the crash down to barely 700 now.

An additional €85 million is included in the budget as part of the Government's plan for the Garda Síochána to have 15,000 members - and 21,000 staff in the service altogether - by 2021. Will the Government bring the strength of the Garda traffic corps back up to what it was in the past? At one stage, we succeeded in halving the number of road traffic deaths from approximately 400 per year to in the region of 200.

My next question relates to the Departments of Transport, Tourism and Justice and Equality. There are, as two Ministers sitting near the Taoiseach who have had responsibility in this area previously are aware, difficulties with traffic law. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport makes policy but the Department of Justice and Equality has to implement it. We get many gaps and failures in the Courts Service and the Department of Justice and Equality. I wish to draw the attention of the Taoiseach to one or two of these, in particular section 22 of the Road Traffic Act 2002. This provision makes it an offence not to present a licence in court if requested to do so. Yet, questions answered at the instigation of the outstanding PARC Road Safety Group in 2014 and 2015 suggest that up to 70% of people coming to court did not present their licences. The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, undertook to take action on this matter. However, when the first group of 21 such prosecutions were brought forward last November, Judge Marie Keane struck them down. For the past year, the Tánaiste has been in consultation with the Garda Commissioner and there has been consultation between the Departments of Justice and Equality and Transport, Tourism and Sport but nothing has been done. As the two former Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport sitting near the Taoiseach are aware, section 42 of the 2010 Act has not yet been brought into force, although it is six or seven years since the legislation was passed. This section relates to the third payment option.

There are many anomalies and there has been a failure to co-ordinate between the Departments of Transport and Tourism and Sport and Justice and Equality. The Courts Service, in particular, needs to be upgraded. The Government only provided approximately €4 million for the upgrading of the information technology systems of the Courts Service. Yet, there is an extraordinary dearth of information going from the Courts Service to the Road Safety Authority and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.

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