James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue and congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, on his appointment. I had the privilege of serving for four years in the previous Dáil term as the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on transport, being a member of the Oireachtas committee on transport and getting an opportunity to see first-hand the operations and functions of that Department and the agencies that work under it. I take great pride in the work we did as a committee, and on the public accounts committee, as regards the Road Safety Authority. It is my view that the whole entity is defunct. We saw in press releases from the Department in quarter 3 of last year that much consideration is being given to stripping many of the organisation's key functions from what it does, whether it is driver testing or relates to the responsibility for the enormous fiasco of NCT testing and the responsibility it had with the company Applus+ for handing out a ten-year contract. It is hugely concerning, particularly given the fact that the agency itself got €95 million in taxpayers' money in one calendar year. It should be abolished. It does not do anything, in my eyes, to proactively improve road safety. The areas it was given responsibility to manage went completely out of control. It handed responsibility over to private entities and companies for what could very easily be done through a mixture of our excellent local authorities in terms of the offerings they could provide in this area, which was previously done.

There is also the area of driver testing and how we get people through the process of obtaining their full driving licence. I was a passionate believer before the recent general election and coming into it, and in writing the submission I wrote for the programme for Government, in reforming how we get a young person through the process of getting their licence. Secondary education is a huge opportunity for people to do their theory testing while they are in secondary school, whether in transition year or senior cycle. Leaving secondary education with a learner's permit is a very wise thing to do. We have seen this done in other countries, such as the Nordic countries, and regions of the world where it is included in secondary education. There is a great opportunity to teach people the rules of the road while they are young.

Every Deputy's constituency has been affected by terrible and sad road accidents in which young people have lost their lives. The statistics are very clear. People, particularly pedestrians and cyclists, are being killed by vehicles. Young drivers who are inexperienced are also being killed. That is why this is important. When we take a step back and look at it holistically, somebody in Ireland can drive a car - with an accompanying driver with a full licence, in fairness - without ever having done a driving lesson. It makes no sense. I have an agricultural background. People know I live on a farm. The tradition in agriculture is that many people go in straightaway at the age of 16, not 17, to get their learner's permit to enable them to drive tractors. It would be a very welcome and wise move for the Government to look at having a system in place whereby people have to do their lessons prior to being able to operate and drive a vehicle on a public road. It is just common sense, to borrow one of the great phases that was used throughout the recent general election.

I have found a few other things annoying. As a young person coming into the Dáil, you get a good insight into how the system works and how inefficient it can be sometimes. I was very passionate about needing to switch from the funding model we had whereby there was nearly a cat-and-mouse game every single year as regards roads funding. Ultimately, it was the taxpayers who lost. The Department of Transport was devolving responsibility for national roads transportation to a State agency and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, giving TII the responsibility to come up with a list of projects that the State needed to advance and that were included in both the national development plan and within TII's individual plans. The TII was then going back to the Department of Transport every calendar year to say, "This is what needs to be done and this is what we feel needs to be prioritised, what is included in the national development plan." The Department of Transport then had the duty to fund what was in those projects but it was not obtaining enough money to implement the plans of its own agency. It made no sense, and every year we were back here in the autumn screaming and shouting at one another on all sides of the House that this was not good enough and we needed to see funding for projects.

I heard Deputy Eoghan Kenny refer to the Mallow relief road, and he was right to do so. It was the same for the Carrigtwohill project. I could list them. About 44 projects, I think, were caught up in funding uncertainty last year alone. This should not be allowed to occur. I ask that the new Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, carry out the commitment - it was one I sought and was included in the programme for Government - to put in place a multi-annual funding system between the Department of Transport, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and TII so we do not have this siege-of-Ennis-style approach to roads funding every year whereby we are in and out trying to figure out what is going on and it ends up in a big political row. The reason this would help is that it would give certainty to the contractors working on road projects. If they are able to plan for 12 months, 18 months, two years or three years, they can do these projects much faster, they are cheaper to do, it gives them the ability to retain crews they may have hired to work on specific road projects and, overall, it would improve delivery and value for the taxpayer, which have to be very important characteristics of the work that needs to be done for this Government.

Looking at a few other items that have to be prioritised in the next few years, the development of the Cork-Limerick motorway has to progress. The current system results in many people in Cork choosing not to fly out of Cork Airport but to go to Dublin Airport, particularly for transatlantic flights and other reasons. They will not go to Shannon Airport because of the extremely poor road infrastructure between the cities of Cork and Limerick. We have to try to address this. It is one of the most dangerous roads in the country without question, particularly the sections around Buttevant and Charleville. We have seen a lot of very serious and fatal accidents, unfortunately, on the Mallow Road as well. I would like us to see this project finally being moved ahead and put to bed. It is one of the key pieces of infrastructure that the State will develop.

It would be wrong of me not to admit there are points in the new programme for Government that I might not be 100% happy with. We had an opportunity in the area of infrastructure development to pull aside the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and tell it that it is responsible for holding up much of the development. We should improve on the efficiencies we have developed as regards capital infrastructure for the Government, particularly in the area of road transportation and road safety, which we are here to discuss. That has to be looked at further, perhaps with a task force within the Department of the Taoiseach to ask what we are doing wrong, how can we improve and why are we allowing projects to be delayed by five, ten or 15 years. I could refer to MetroLink or connecting Dublin Airport to our country's rail network. In Cork there are many examples such as the development of new public transport links in the city. This is worthy of attention. It is not something we often discuss.

There is another thing I would like to see happen over the current Dáil term. Deputy Carthy is here, and it is good to see Sinn Féin represented as the lead Opposition party. An all-party committee on the national development plan could be something for TDs who are interested in infrastructure. The Social Democrats, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin are represented here, along with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, my party, as are the Independents who have Deputy Mattie McGrath in the Chair. We should look at whether we could have an Oireachtas joint committee on the national development plan, a forum to discuss these capital projects in a way that is conducive to their development. Too much of the discussion here is siloed into particular Government Departments and responsibility is being passed around. Earlier, after Leaders' Questions, I said that when everybody is responsible, nobody is, unfortunately. I would like to see that progressed.

Above all else, there are very practical things we can do to improve road safety. My view on the RSA, having worked on it for the past few years, is that it is utterly defunct. It should be disbanded. I would much rather see that allocation, close to €100 million, go to An Garda Síochána and its roads policing unit and traffic corps and to reforming the system to get people who do not have a learner's permit or licence onto the roads in a safer, more practical manner. We should have them do their driving lessons before they can get behind the wheel of a car on a public road. The system should be changed.

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