Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will address all the questions the Deputy asked. Deputy Collins said the situation in Cork is worse than anywhere in the country with a waiting time of 17.4 weeks. It is not. There are worse, although I hate to tell Deputy Collins that. I am unsure where Deputy Collins got his figures from but there are worse figures. They are bad. A waiting period of 17.4 weeks is bad. Deputy Collins is correct about that, but there are worse figures. Wexford has worse figures. Donegal has worse figures. I regret that, but the average wait is somewhere around 17 weeks.

I have gone into considerable detail about what the Road Safety Authority is doing in my replies on this stage and on the previous stage as well. The effort is being made to accelerate this. The problem is being addressed aggressively by the RSA in the ways I have already spelt out. Deputy Collins should not say that nothing is being done. Enough is not being done. We want to bring the waiting time down well into single figures. That would be adequate. I accept the problem, but we are addressing it and the RSA is addressing it. We acknowledge the problem but, as I have said previously, the driver testing problem should not be mixed up with allowing people to go on the roads. We do not solve the problem by allowing people to break the law.

Reference was made to the issue of young people and education. I have already addressed that. There are already road safety programmes in schools. They are run and promoted by the RSA. That is being addressed. I answered that question some minutes ago.

How are directors appointed? I will explain how they are appointed. It is a new system that leaves me with virtually no discretion whatsoever, and deliberately so. In his Second Stage speech, the Deputy implied that I had done something. The idea is that I cannot make political decisions in appointing people to semi-state bodies. What happened in this case was that we searched for people who had experience of road accidents, who were representatives of road victims or who had authority and credibility to speak about road tragedies and road safety because they had suffered. The Deputy should not come back to me and say that I am lying if I am wrong, but I believe we got 60 applications when the process was advertised. The figure is around that anyway - if it is 61 or 62, Deputies should not nail me to the cross on it. The applications came in. They went through a process of being selected by panel. It was all done by the Public Appointments Service and not by me. Then, those who fulfilled the criteria were selected for interview and they were interviewed. Four names came up to me and I selected the top two, as I have done in every case. I did not interfere in any way. That is how it was done. There were interviews, which is rather revolutionary and radical in the appointment of people to state bodies. All I did was select the top two who were appointed as a result of the interview.

Deputy Collins addressed the issue of the rural Local Link. I think this will work. The welcome I got in Kerry for it was staggering. I am grateful for the fact that both Deputies Healy-Rae greeted me and welcomed me to Kerry last Friday. The spontaneous welcome I got from people there for the link buses was reassuring. I know that people have said the funding is only €450,000, but that is a great deal of money by any standards.

This is being done as a pilot scheme. It is my intention to pursue this if it works, and it looks to me as if it will work. There is considerable pent-up demand because of the issue all the Deputies have identified. There is rural and social isolation. There is a problem in rural Ireland with this. We must identify exactly where it is and how it can be resolved. To denigrate a scheme that is in place to help to address this problem, albeit in a preliminary way, is probably unhelpful. It is my intention, if I remain Minister, that this scheme will be expanded. It will be tailored and changed. That is why it is a pilot scheme. We are going to attack rural isolation with this as a beginning. I appeal to Deputies to give it a chance. It is a good idea. There is pent-up demand. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. What I saw when I travelled on one of those buses on Friday was hope for the future. People from Kerry said to me that it is a good scheme. These people are probably great supporters of the Healy-Rae brothers and that is not incompatible.

Deputy Collins asked whether I would send parents to jail. No, the fine is only €1,000. There is no intention of jailing anyone. We are not looking for parents. That is not fair; it is being emotional. We intend to stop people lending their cars to unaccompanied drivers. What we intend to do is to ensure that unaccompanied drivers who are driving without permits are stopped from doing so - that is all.

The Deputy asked about trees. That is a local authority matter. I can understand what the Deputy is saying but it is a local authority matter.

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