John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have listened to colleagues focus on these proposals from a rural perspective, but I intend to deal broadly with the road safety aspect. The record of the Minister's predecessors in office, going back to the late Seamus Brennan and, subsequently, Noel Dempsey, shows what was achieved in this area by my party in government. In 2001, we introduced the penalty points system and, in 2005, mandatory alcohol road tests. The Road Safety Authority was established by a Fianna Fáil-led Government in 2006 and, three years later, it rolled out the installation of safety cameras. In 2010, we introduced the graduated driver licensing system. Our record in this area is strong and I acknowledge the Minister's effort, in bringing forward these proposals, to build on it.

The Bill is specific in its purpose, namely, to introduce a regime of automatic disqualification of three months for drivers found to have a blood alcohol level of 50 mg to 80 mg per 100 ml. It is worth emphasising the point, because there seems to be some misunderstanding in this regard, that it is already illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of 50 mg or more. What is at issue here is the penalty which applies to that offence. When the Minister introduced the Bill in the House, he said it was about saving lives. In fact, as well as seeking to prevent road fatalities, we need to reduce the incidence of serious, life-changing injuries. It behoves us all to be as honest as we can be in this debate and to address the proposals in view of the evidence available to us.

One of the things that struck me when I was researching this issue is that there is no standard international practice in this area. Different countries have a whole range of different policies on what is and is not appropriate. It is difficult to find scientific evidence that indicates clearly the point at which driving is impaired. A blood alcohol level of 0% is well defined and measurable, but beyond that point things are less clear. Why, for example, have we chosen 50 mg as the threshold when some countries have lower levels? I had expected more of that type of detail and background information from the Minister as he progressed these proposals.

In his opening statement on Second Stage, the Minister outlined the dramatic improvements in road safety since the 1990s. In 1997, for instance, there were 472 road fatalities in the State. Twenty years later, that number looks to be more than halved for this year. The figure is still too high, but the various policies that have been implemented have improved road safety significantly. The Minister went on to say that between 2012 and 2016, 3,000 fixed-penalty notices were issued to drink-drivers in the 50 mg to 80 mg category. In the five-year period from 2008 to 2012, he indicated, 35 people died in collisions who had an alcohol level between 21 mg and 80 mg, of whom 16 had a level of 50 mg or higher. I do not understand why the Minister chose that period to illustrate the numbers. It was right in the middle of this period that the law changed, which meant there were three years where the cut-off was 80 mg and two years where it was 50 mg. That causes confusion rather than adding clarity.

The Minister stated that moving from the current penalty regime to one of automatic disqualification will give clearer direction and a more severe disincentive, which will encourage more people not to drink and drive. The reality, however, is that of the more than 8,000 people who were breathalysed and failed the test in 2016, 93% had a blood alcohol reading above 80 mg, which already incurs disqualification. That is my real concern with this Bill. I do not want to see a false hope put out there that these provisions will dramatically improve the situation. In fact, we are way behind the curve in what we should be doing.

I submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister last March on the issue of road safety.

I would have liked an opportunity to raise the matter in the Dáil but we do not get those opportunities. The Minister's reply indicated that the number of road deaths in Ireland increased by 15% - from 162 to 188 - in 2016 and compared the increase with what is going on in other countries, such as the UK, France, Denmark, Norway and the United States of America. I never understood why the comparison was offered because there was no rationale given as to cause and effect. In the written reply in question, the Minister said that the main causes of fatalities on our roads are speeding, intoxicated driving, the use of mobile phones and failure to wear seat belts. The Minister also said he intended to introduce further legislation this year. Will the Minister clarify if the Bill before the House is the only such legislation? More importantly, a month ago the Minister indicated that he was going to bring forward amendments on Committee Stage in respect of learner drivers and so on. Given that the reply to which I refer was written in March, I do not know why there was no urgency to deal with the problem. More of the legislation should have been brought forward at the time rather than seeking to deal with the matter in the form of amendments on Committee Stage. In the last part of his reply, the Minister said, "the Road Safety authority is embarking on a wide ranging safety campaign of education and advertising while the numbers serving in the Garda Traffic Bureau will be increased by 10% which will assist with  enforcement, and the Gardaí have confirmed that road safety enforcement is a priority for An Garda Síochána ...".

I recently checked what is happening in respect of road safety because a number of years ago I was stopped more frequently and I wondered if I was just lucky, unlucky or what was going on. I looked at the numbers in the Garda traffic corps. On 31 January 2012, there were 931 members of An Garda Síochána attached to the traffic bureau. I will not go through every year but, on 31 January 2017, there were 669 in the traffic bureau. The Minister's reply indicated that there would be a 10% increase, in which case I would have expected to see 700 or 730 members of An Garda Síochána in the traffic bureau. I recently submitted a follow-up parliamentary question to see where the numbers stand because we are still not seeing what we expected to see. On 30 September 2017, the numbers attached to the Garda traffic bureau had dropped from 669 in January to 631. There is a continual drop in the strength of the traffic corps. We can introduce all the legislation we like, but if we are serious about road safety-----

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