Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 8, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:“(1C) Subsection (1A) does not apply to a person in respect of a drug specified at reference number 6 in column (1) of the Schedule where the person is the holder of a medical exemption certificate which indicates that at the time at which that drug was found to be present in his or her blood it had been lawfully prescribed for him or her and which is signed by the doctor who prescribed it.

(1D) The Minister will, upon commencement of this Act, in conjunction with the Garda Commissioner, make regulations specifying the minimum Levels (units in whole blood) in respect of each drug specified at reference number 6 in column (1) of the Schedule.”,”.

I welcome the fact we are finally on Report Stage of this important Bill. When I was driving to Leinster House this morning, I heard an effective advertisement by the chair of the Road Safety Authority, Liz O’Donnell, speaking poignantly and factually as to where we are with road safety. Unfortunately, the trend in good figures in this regard obtained over recent years is in reverse. I hate to refer to figures and statistics when we are actually talking about lives tragically lost through road traffic accidents. So far this year, 32 more lives have been lost on the roads than in 2015. That is regrettable and a movement in the wrong direction. With every one of those fatalities, a family and a community is devastated.

The purpose of this Bill is to improve road safety for everybody and militate against further fatalities on our roads. It is regrettable that it has taken until the end of the year to bring forward the Bill. I know it was meant to have been brought forward last week and Fianna Fáil facilitated the Government when it wanted to kick it forward for a week. That is okay as it is only one week. This Bill, however, was before the previous Seanad and it has taken the guts of ten months to bring it to where it is today. That is regrettable and leads me to question the priority road safety is given by the Department under the Minister's leadership.

Amendment No. 1 aims to extend to the list of drugs which can be tested for on the roadside because we believe the original listing in the Bill is too restrictive. Our amendment will give greater scope for what can be tested on the roadside. The Bill will allow the Garda to use a mouth swab or other detection kits in the same way it uses breathalysers for alcohol. This is a welcome proposal which is long overdue.

Driver impairment, including as a result of the misuse of alcohol and drugs, is still a very large contributory factor in road traffic accidents. The Schedule list of banned substances in section 4(1A) and 5(1A) seems very limited. It only lists the main illegal drugs in Ireland, namely cannabis, cocaine and heroin. Based on the current national and international prevalence data, the drugs to be targeted initially in the roadside chemical drug testing, RCDT, are cannabis, cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines. The House will have to excuse my pronunciation on some drugs. I do not take them so I do not have cause for using the pronunciation on a regular basis.

However, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, MBRS, study, on whose recommendation the Bill is based, relies on a 16 year old study, Driving Under the Influence of Drugs in Ireland: Results of a Nationwide Survey 2000-2001. The study indicates that cannabis and benzodiazepines are currently the most prevalent drugs in driving under the influence of drugs cases, followed by opiates, methadone and cocaine. While it might be the case that these drugs remain the most widely used in Ireland, it is certainly also the case that over the past 15 to 16 years, drugs use in Ireland and internationally has evolved significantly. In particular, the use of psychoactive drugs has become much more prevalent in that period. According to the EU drug markets report 2015, Irish young people are the biggest users of illegal psychoactive drugs in the EU. According to the survey of people aged between 15 to 24, the highest level of use in the past year was in Ireland. Spain, France and Slovenia followed after. Such psychoactive substances are not included in the Schedule of banned substances in the Bill.

Another limitation in the Bill, and one which we tried to improve by the amendments we tabled, is that it ignores the possible misuse of legal prescription drugs which can be worse than alcohol for impairing driving. In particular, the misuse of prescription benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax has risen significantly over the past 15 years. According to the HSE, the number of people seeking treatment for addiction to benzodiazepines has more than doubled since 2009. While benzodiazepines are often prescribed sedatives used for the treatment of anxiety disorders and insomnia, they have also become increasingly common as recreational drugs. Recent statistics show that these drugs were the main problem drug of 547 people who sought treatment for substance abuse in 2012. While it is acknowledged the Bill cannot take a zero tolerance approach to individuals driving after consuming such prescription drugs, the inclusion of a provision to address drivers caught abusing such a drug would strengthen the Bill significantly.

That is the context in which we are bringing forward this amendment. We are doing so in the interest of being constructive and in the interest of improving the Bill. In that context, I hope the Minister will take on board the amendments.

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