Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies who have contributed to the debate on this. I do not have an enormous amount to add. One of the problems in preparing legislation of this sort, as Deputy Troy alluded to yesterday, is that I have an army of civil servants and lawyers behind me who look at amendments when they come through. A large number of Members proposing amendments, however, do not have that advantage. They draft amendments which seem perfectly all right but which have unintended consequences. This is a classic example.

I have a bit of a problem with the whole DPP aspect of this but I believe there might be ways around that. Telling the DPP what to put into books of evidence is offensive and contrary to what was intended when establishing that office. It might have complications for the Constitution and the independence of the DPP.

Otherwise, we all agree with the sentiments behind all the amendments which we have heard today, yesterday and on Committee Stage.

They have been found to have different drafting difficulties, unintended consequences, or they will break the law in other ways or they were in the wrong place. That is nobody's fault. It makes me think that if people are serious about tabling amendments to non-political Bills of this sort, we should provide people with some sort of a service to make sure they do not fall into these difficulties because they do not have the same resources. Ministers do not come back and say, with a certain amount of glee, that an amendment does not qualify because it has legal difficulties or there are other technical reasons it cannot proceed.

This is probably a real one with real problems. We do not want it to apply in all cases, which it would as a result of the drafting of this amendment. We have more fundamental difficulties with the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP. I will certainly refer this issue to the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and the Minister for Justice and Equality to look at it and see if there is any possible way of getting round it. The normal way at the moment works but there is a lack of enthusiasm and confidence that we are getting enough convictions, that the traffic corps is working adequately and that we are getting enough enforcement. This is probably a reflection of this. I ask Deputy Broughan if, in light of this, he will withdraw the amendment, and in light of the fact I am not really opposing anything he is saying, although I have questions about the DPP.

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