Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Many people in my constituency in Limerick are waiting up to nine months for a driving test. I listened to the Minister of State read out his piece of paperwork. He said that under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006 "the RSA has statutory responsibility for the national driver testing service as well as the national car testing service". Does he agree that the RSA and the Government have a legal obligation and responsibility to provide for the safe passage of people, whether they are pedestrians, cyclists, motorists or bus users?

I hear daily of accidents happening in Limerick and around the country due to poor hedge cutting on roadsides. If a local authority or the Government wants to put up signage, the statutory requirement is that they put up a sign 1 m from the edge of the road, so it can be seen. We now have an issue all around the country as a result of the Government introducing rules. I am all for biodiversity and the environment but I am also for the safety of the men, women and children who use the roads as they are supposed to be used. However, if it is not allowed to cut a hedge or grass margin for X number of months in the year, it results in roads being closed in. What is the knock-on effect? It means Bus Éireann will not use bigger buses on roads to collect children. It is now using a delicensed bus which can only carry up to 16 people. The bus can no longer fit on the road because the Government will not allow hedges or grass verges to be cut on the road edge. I believe that is a breach of the law.

Last week, I mentioned the law reform Bill. I believe the Government is guilty of putting people's lives at risk. Roadside hedges cannot be cut back 1 m, whereas it can be for Government signage, as the regulations state. Hedgerows can be cut straight up but not 2 m up because that impacts on the mirrors of buses and trucks and puts them into the middle of the road. The Government is guilty of putting lives at risk by not allowing all roadside hedges to be cut for safe passage of pedestrians, cyclists and bus and truck transport. I am looking for a commitment from the Minister of State that he will talk to the Green Party Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who I believe does not hold any licences bar a car licence, and who goes around the country saying there is bus transport.

To give just one story, a woman in Croom told me she drives her son to the bus stop in Croom every morning to get a bus. The bus, which could be delayed by ten or 15 minutes because of the road structures and things in the way, takes him to the train station in Limerick where he is supposed to get a connecting bus to the University of Limerick. If the bus is delayed by five minutes, the connecting bus is gone and he has to wait 15 minutes for the next bus to get to college. This means he gets to college 15 or 20 minutes late for lectures. The lecturers are now telling this woman's son they will dock him college points for being late due to poor infrastructure in the Government's transport network.

People are unable to take up jobs. This is a legal matter - equal job opportunity - that the Government should be held accountable for. If you live in a place where you need a driving licence and the Government prevents you from getting a licence by not having the proper infrastructure in place, the Government is guilty of stopping equal job opportunity.

The 75 testers the Minister of State said will be coming on board are not enough. The people of Limerick and around the country are suffering because of the Government.

They cannot get jobs, they cannot get to college and they cannot get to medical appointments, even if they depend on them, because of the delay in the licensing service. Not only that, the Government is putting every man, woman and child in this country at risk because it will not allow the road verges to be cut, even though its own legal authorities tell it that if signposts are put up, the letter of the law must be followed. The Government is forcing all vehicles to drive in a certain way on the road. The Government should be held to account legally and brought to court for not protecting the people, which it is mandated to do.

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