Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this very important issue. No more than any other Teachta Dála, in my constituency in Galway East I have received numerous requests from young people especially who are trying to get a driving licence and trying to get an appointment to do their tests. The problem is twofold in my constituency. First, it is a rural constituency and we do not have the public transport. Young people take up work and buy a car to do their training but then they must wait and cannot drive the car to get to work. They have no access to public transport. Second, they may be young apprentices who have to bring a change of clothes or might have to bring tools with them as well. They need a car because public transport is not available.

The other cohort are students who cannot afford to stay in accommodation in our cities at their universities. The accommodation is not available, so their only choice is to travel by car. They are left wondering when they might be able to drive a car legally on the roads. We are letting young people down and doubly so because first, we are not providing the public transport initially so they do not need a car and, second, maybe it is a coerced way of trying to stop them from driving and forcing them to do something else. I really do not know. I do not know whether we want them all on bicycles going to work. I just cannot figure it out. It is, therefore, important that we get it right.

The Government is not opposing the motion. That in itself does nothing for the situation we have, however. We need to see the response to actually deal with this problem. How are we going to take action to make sure we improve the waiting times so that people are not waiting up to six months or beyond that for a driving test? It is forcing people to drive cars illegally. Everything goes fine until something goes wrong and if somebody has an accident, they are not covered by insurance. We are forcing people into a situation that is not right and that is untenable. It is important that we get this right.

We have a crisis in our business sector trying to find people to work. We need, therefore, to make sure every obstacle is removed to allow people to go to work. Let us do this where there is no public transport. I can say for sure that if we had more public transport, and if we had the western rail corridor open from Athenry north to Tuam and up to Claremorris, we would create a transport corridor that would be sustainable and environmentally good. Again, however, it is being dragged out. The all-island rail review advised the Government to go ahead with it. I implore the Government to look at this as a very serious issue, and also to look at the issue of road safety. By the way, reducing speed limits does nothing for safety. People will drive at whatever speed at which they feel they can drive. The problem is that we have more than enough laws but there is not enough enforcement or enough of a presence on the roads to make sure people are obeying the laws.

I believe the issue of cutting the verges along the roads is a major problem in every local authority for the simple reason that every local authority will say they do not have money to do it. It is a safety issue. Let us put the money into it, for God's sake, and try to save a few lives.

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