Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport. We did some pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill and had the Road Safety Authority appear before us. I attended those pre-legislative scrutiny meetings with an open mind on this issue. Many things that people expressed about it show that it is a big deal. I understand that it is a big deal to change that sanction. I understand that is a change in sanction, as opposed to a new sanction. I was impressed with the Road Safety Authority. We got a regulatory impact assessment and we considered what options might be recommended regarding this aspect and others. We also heard from the person who did the analysis behind the statistics we have been given. I thought it must have been pretty difficult for the person doing that work because she was not looking at dry statistics but was looking at the inquests from all cases where there had been a fatality. She read through the details of all of those. The reports were subsequently compiled on the basis of not just numbers, but real people who had lost their lives. Between 2008 and 2012, 16 people, or 6%, were killed in collisions where drivers or motorcyclists had a recorded blood alcohol content, BAC, of between 50 mg and 80 mg. That is 16 people who lost their lives. While people say it will not impact on people, it might not impact on millions, thousands or even dozens of people, but it will certainly impact profoundly on people who are alive today who we want to keep alive. It is never nice to have to add sanctions and put restrictions on people because it is a curtailment of freedom but people have a right to feel safe on the roads and we have a responsibility to make sure that whatever we do keeps them as safe as we possibly can on the roads.

The RSA document states:

The stark reality behind the statistics and one of the hardest things for victims and their families to deal with is that drink driving does not happen by chance. Sadly it happens by choice.

The literature on the effects of alcohol on driving is extensive and consistent. Alcohol in almost any amount impairs driving or driving-related skills. In 1998 and 2000, 117 studies and 112 studies, respectively, were reviewed in reports by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the USA. The results of the reviews can be summarised by a finding from the 1998 report, which states there is no lower threshold below which impairment does not exist for alcohol, which is of course a sedative. I was concerned and teased out some of the figures relating to the morning after people had been out for a night out. That often involves home drinking and measures are not the same. It is almost safer for people to be in pubs because people do not tend to use measures and things in the same way as they would in pubs. We teased that out. I was concerned that that was unfair on people. We were told that 14% of all alcohol-related fatal crashes happen between 6 a.m. and 12 noon. Some 15% of all alcohol-related fatal crashes involving a driver or motorcycle rider happen between 6 a.m. and 12 noon. Where there is a slight variation there, it is directly related to drivers or motorcycle riders.

I acknowledge the committee did not produce a report in which there was an agreed recommendation but we gave this quite detailed scrutiny. Many of us who went in with an open mind felt that we were convinced. I certainly felt convinced by the road safety aspects that we heard and I thought the pre-legislative scrutiny was quite useful from that point of view. It gave us access to people who are charged with considering these matters and recommending changes. There is an interesting point which I referred to before and will refer to again about public support.

Behaviour & Attitudes conducted a face-to-face barometer survey with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults in January 2017. Some 91% of Irish motorists surveyed supported any driver caught over the drink-driving limit being automatically disqualified from driving, with 61% of those who indicated support believing the driver should be disqualified for more than 12 months. The Bill does not do that but there is a higher sanction for a greater threshold. Some 89% of adults in urban areas and 93% of those in rural areas indicated support for any driver caught over the drink-driving limit being automatically disqualified from driving. Public attitudes on this issue have been clearly tested.

I listened to some of the descriptions of Kerry and how it does not have amenities and so on. I was in Kerry for a few days last year and was very impressed with the wonderful amenities there. It does the county no service to run it down in the manner we have heard in the past few minutes. Kildare has two public swimming pools for a county of 220,000 people. When anyone asks me where the swimming pool for north Kildare is, I tell them it is in Kerry, which has four public swimming pools. One was closed because there were not enough people to support it. I ask the Minister, Deputy Ross, to note that argument.

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