Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too want to speak about the recommittal of this amendment. I have been here for 11 years now and I do not think I have ever seen this happen. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, had introduced his Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017 and we all debated it here. Then he had a brainwave over Christmas and decided to add more things to it, for fear it would not do enough damage. Ar an gcéad dul síos, I do not want to see anybody drink-driving. I do not want to see anybody hurt by an accident. However, laws Members pass in here must be accepted by the people. The Garda cannot police the country, nor can any police force police any country in the world, without the support of the people, na daoine go léir. If the Minister brings in draconian laws that are impossible to implement, it will undermine the whole ethos of government, legislation and constitutionality.

Bhí mé an-chairdiúil leis an Aire ar feadh cúig bliana. We were the best of friends. He has now decided to take a dislike to me because I represent my constituents. I am doing no more than my colleagues here. I am representing the people that I meet who do not have services in rural Ireland. I will deal with the rest of this tomorrow but I note the Minister has raised the issue of learner drivers. I know some of the Minister's children and grandchildren. I have asked him honestly whether any of them has ever sat in a car without a qualified driver. He said they had not. I take him at his word. However, I can tell him that most people in rural Ireland have to drive. Insurance companies accepted this, as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae noted, and An Garda Síochána were aware of it too. I am not against dangerous drivers.

I have asked the Minister to reform the testing centres countless times. It is a dog's dinner. One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. He will not listen, or his officials will not listen, at all. I put down a parliamentary question, which I have to hand, that the Department passed on to the Road Safety Authority, RSA. The Minister is good at passing the buck. The RSA confirmed to me in a parliamentary reply that nationally, a total of 44,746 applicants are awaiting to be scheduled for a test. The Minister should sort that out first, and then demonise the people. He has the cart before the horse. I could say something else about mo thón. But I will not use it, because it is spelled A - R - S - E and W - A - Y - S.

These figures go to the heart of what I and others have been saying for some time now; which is there is a chronic backlog afflicting the sector, which in turn is creating serious knock-on consequences. What else did the RSA tell me? What is deeply alarming to me is that this number of almost 45,000 does not include those who have already been scheduled for an upcoming test. They could number another 40,000 for all we know. The Minister is playing with the figures. In this case he is playing with people's lives and their constitutional rights to live, breathe, work, play and socialise. To hell with them. I said it earlier. To hell or to Connacht. Cromwell is back. Those people do not matter. The Minster talks about Bills in this House. On the other hand he is going to knock Na Fianna GAA club down, undermine it or blow it up like Nelson's Pillar. It does not matter where it goes.

The Minister does not listen. The figure of 45,000 merely reflects those waiting to be given a test date. What about the rest of them? The RSA informs me that in part, this is due to the number of driver tester retirements in the past 12 months. However, it does not specify how many testers have opted out of the system or why. They are probably fed up with it. They are sick of it. Working in a bureaucratic system is impossible. I told the Minister previously that driving should be started in schools. Tús maith, leath na hoibre. It should start in transition year where a simulator course should be held and driver testing carried out. Some schools, including the Abbey School in Tipperary town, have had that facility for several years.

The RSA has also told me it has taken on 23 new testers in 2016. Hooray. Only six of them will commence operating by this year. What is going on? What are they doing, these 26 testers, if they are not working? Are they on the payroll doing nothing? This is farce. The Minister and his officials should go back and examine that. I refer to the downright waste involved in people taking two years to be trained. Are they that stupid, that they take two years to be become a tester? I do not know what the Minister is in charge of but the lunatics are in charge of the asylum and I include the Minister in that.

This is simply not good enough, given the scale of the challenge. If my son or daughter applies to do their test they may fail for a flimsy reason. I agree that fundamentals must be done right. Test candidates have all had 12 lessons now, which means that nearly €600 has been spent by themselves or their parents or guardians. The lesson system is very good. I told the Minister earlier about a girl who drove from Cappawhite to Clonmel, a distance of 30 miles, in the fog. The tester came outside, looked up at the sky and said it was too foggy to have a test, so she could not take it. She had to drive home again in the fog. What kind of a fog is the Minister in? He is in a fog, and he does not know when he is going to come out of it. He is in a deep fog. He does not know what is going on.

I met someone only two weeks ago who drove in the frost from Ballyporeen into Clonmel. She brought an approved driver with her, for fear the Minister might have instructed the Garda to catch her. The tester came out, said it was a bit cold and frosty and declared he was not going to do it. This is what is going on, namely, downright blackguarding of ordinary people and citizens. It is downright blackguarding and skulduggery. Those people must take a day off work and get a driver to accompany them. They wait for six months for a test in my town of Clonmel. If a candidate fails the test for any reason, however flimsy, they must wait a month before they reapply. They are penalised again. They cannot apply that day by simply asking if they can come back again. Think of an enthusiastic young fellow who has an apprenticeship waiting for him, who must finish his college or leaving certificate or lo and behold, wants to go to college. The Government will not give him accommodation up here. It is doubling and trebling the fees here. It wants people to live in the Dark Ages in the country. Let them grow horns and go back to the Dark Ages. To hell with them. Keep all the nice things for this crazy city where one cannot get a bed. Somebody told me tonight that a bed in a hotel cost them €780. We have plenty of beds in Tipperary. We have plenty of people there. The Rising started in Tipperary. The War of Independence started in Soloheadbeg. We are great people, proud people and people with autonomy. I am elected by the people of Tipperary for the time being, thankfully, and I will fight the Minister every inch of the way on this Bill, because it is nonsense and poppycock. He does not understand the first thing about it and he cares less. He had time for reflection over Christmas or maybe he was on one of those journeys that his colleagues have been on with the eighth amendment. They were all going on journeys this way, that way and the other way. To the people who are here tonight in the Visitors Gallery, in anticipation of the next debate-----

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