Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When we talk about road safety the first thing we have to remember is that many families have been adversely affected by the large number of deaths in tragedies on our roads over the past year. In the first quarter of this year, as the Minister of State acknowledged, the figures have gone up again. This is a serious issue that we need to deal with. Policing is central to that, as the Minister of State has also acknowledged. One of the difficulties in this regard is that the roads policing units have not been at or near the full complement. The Minister of State has acknowledged this fact as well.

The Garda Commissioner has announced that gardaí will have to spend half an hour in each shift doing roads policing. When I speak to gardaí most of them tell me that they do that anyway and do not need to be instructed to do it. Others see it as a bit of a ploy to take attention away from the reality that we are down numbers in roads policing units throughout the State. The Minister of State has announced that more resources will be going to this area. The latest figures show the number of gardaí in these units was 625, although it may have increased a little. I have been told that figure includes large numbers of gardaí who are not doing that work because they are off sick or for other reasons. We submitted a parliamentary question on the number of gardaí in the roads policing units who have not issued a fixed-charge notice in the last 12 months. That would indicate that they are not working at all and we need to acknowledge that there are sections that are not working in any case.

We also have the whole issue of drink and drugs. The new legislation will allow gardaí to test for drugs after an accident. This is welcome and we need to see it happen. The biggest problem is that most people do not see gardaí out on the roads implementing the kind of deterrent we had in the past, which is simply not there anymore. The emphasis has shifted to having Go Safe vans do the work of An Garda Síochána, which has been a privatisation of the service. This is an issue we must deal with. Last weekend, former Chief Superintendent John O'Brien wrote an article in The Journal highlighting that whereas things were done in the past based on best practice and research from across the EU, we have since moved away from that. We must acknowledge that this is one of the reasons we are now having issues.

We must also examine the whole issue of driver testing. The Minister of State mentioned people with learner permits not sitting their tests and continuing to drive. This needs to be dealt with urgently. The Minister of State also referred to how well we train drivers. I recently met representatives of the Professional Driving Instructors Association who pointed out that Ireland has the lowest number of mandatory lessons in Europe, with 12 lessons being mandatory before a person can sit a test. The RSA has a responsibility to review that. It also needs to review the curriculum, which has been the same for the past decade. Things have changed, however.

I welcome the additional €3 million to be spent on highlighting the many collisions and other issues on our roads, as well as the tragic deaths we have. I do not believe the board of the RSA is at its full complement. This must be looked at. We need to have a complete emphasis on delivering solutions that will work for people. To do that, we need to take these issues very seriously. While I acknowledge the recently passed Road Traffic Act which the Minister of State said will shortly go to the President for his signature, we have not seen the regulations around that legislation yet. We have not seen how it will be implemented or what power the local authorities will have. I appeal to the Minister of State to publish the regulations as quickly as possible so we can see exactly how that legislation is going to work.

I made the point throughout the debates on the Road Traffic Bill that people driving within the speed limit are not causing these accidents. Rather, it is people driving well in excess of the speed limit and not being detected that is causing many of the accidents on the roads. Bringing down the speed limits is well and good but we need to detect these offences. That is the problem more than anything else. We do not having enough gardaí implementing the rules of the road. This is what is needed and it is where we need to see the change happen.

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