Dáil debates
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Road Safety: Statements
9:00 pm
Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The events of the last few days have once again succeeded in putting the question of road safety to the forefront of people's minds and that is welcome.
I intend to take the opportunity afforded to me by these statements to clarify some of the questions that have arisen and to reiterate my commitment and that of the Government to saving lives and reducing injuries on our roads. First, I want to refer to the new learner permit system.
The new system was introduced on 30 October for all new first time licence applicants as well as those renewing their provisional licences after that date. This is a key building stone in the introduction of a graduated licensing system for Ireland. I know that many people depend on their cars and I acknowledge that the backlog of driving tests has meant many of those who would like the opportunity to become fully licensed have not been able to take a driving test. For that reason, I have deferred the introduction of the requirement for second provisional licence holders to be accompanied by a qualified driver until 30 June 2008 to enable those drivers to apply for a driving test or make alternative arrangements.
This move was made in response to two clear messages from the public. First, there is strong support for the proposed reforms to improve road safety. Second, there is a strong desire for a reasonable lead-in time to enable people to prepare for and take their tests or make alternative arrangements.
The amended arrangements that I announced on 28 October are as follows. From 30 October 2007 the provisional licence is being replaced by a learner permit to emphasise the fact that the holder is learning to drive. From 30 October 2007 new applicant learner permit holders must be accompanied by a driver who must hold a full licence for at least two years. With effect from 30 October 2007 new applicant learner permit holders cannot apply for a driving test for six months. Existing provisional licences will continue in force until their expiry dates after which the holders will be issued with learner permits.
From 30 June 2008 the holder of a second provisional licence or learner permit for a car must be accompanied at all times. He or she may, however, drive unaccompanied in the period up to 30 June 2008. The existing rule that first, third and subsequent holders of provisional licences must be accompanied by a person holding a full driving licence, with no minimum period necessary, continues in force until 30 June 2008. From 30 June 2008 all provisional licence or learner permit holders must be accompanied by a driver who has held a full licence for at least two years.
A person whose provisional licence has now lapsed but who held a provisional licence at any time in the five year period prior to 30 October 2007 can renew his or her licence by getting a learner permit before the five year limit expires. The learner permit in that case will not be considered a first-time learner permit. While driving this person must be accompanied by a person who holds a full driving licence and no minimum period is necessary. From 1 December 2007 a learner motorcyclist must wear the letter L on a yellow fluorescent tabard.
All these measures form the initial phase of the introduction of a graduated licence. Graduated licences have saved lives in those countries where they have been introduced and it is right and proper that we also introduce a system of graduated licences to afford maximum protection to all our road users.
I urge all provisional licence holders who have not already done so to prepare and apply for a driving test. Over the past number of days I have had extensive consultations with the RSA with regard to its capacity to deliver these tests. The Government has already committed to providing the necessary finance to the Road Safety Authority to ensure that all 122,000 applicants currently on the waiting list will be tested by early March 2008. This will eliminate the current backlog as promised. By the end of June 2008, all applicants for a driving test will be able to get a test on demand, generally regarded as within ten weeks.
The RSA is working to have all driving instructors registered by 31 December 2008. This means that instructors giving instruction after that date must have passed a three-stage examination covering knowledge, driving skills and ability to give tuition. Applications are currently being processed from driving instructors who wish to be approved. The authority has a dedicated team of specially trained staff to undertake this work and has the capacity to deal with the volume of applications from driving instructors over the coming 14 months.
Undoubtedly, the past few days have shone a spotlight on our attitudes to driving and safety. While it was proper, in response to public concerns, to defer the implementation of the accompaniment rule for second provisional licence holders, I reiterate my strong conviction that a change in the law is needed. I am heartened by the strong support for the measures announced and believe this is indicative of a change in public attitudes to road safety matters. However, I am disappointed that the political criticism of the past few days has focused on my decision at the weekend to respond to the public concerns and has not sufficiently acknowledged the great merits and the comprehensive and far-seeing nature of the strategy approved by the Government.
A concerted and determined effort to resolve the problem of having over 400,000 provisional licence or learner permit holders on our roads is long overdue. When the political controversy has passed, the introduction of the graduated driver licensing regime will have a positive impact on road deaths as learner drivers become more competent. Evidence of this change in attitude to provisional licences and testing can be seen by the fact that thousands of people have applied for the test since last Thursday. Many of us who have had family members, friends or colleagues killed or injured on the roads look forward to a day when we have the safest possible roads. I am confident that over the coming months and years, as the measures in the road safety strategy are rolled out, we will all benefit from the tangible improvement in safety on our roads.
Tonight's debate gives me the opportunity to update the House on recent developments in road safety policy. Over the past year we have seen a distinct improvement in road safety performance, with the year 2006 resulting in the second lowest number of road deaths in 40 years. However, the need for constant vigilance and attention has been clearly shown with more lives lost on our roads last weekend.
The collective goal of all of those involved in the promotion and delivery of road safety policies is to ensure that the improvements achieved in recent years are sustained and built on. Significant initiatives realised over the lifetime of the two previous road safety strategies, in particular over the past two years, included the extension of penalty points and fixed charges, stronger legislation, mandatory roadside alcohol testing, greater levels of enforcement and the establishment of the Road Safety Authority.
The Road Safety Strategy 2007 to 2012 is the outcome of detailed research and consultation with stakeholders. The purpose of the strategy, which was developed by the Road Safety Authority and published last week, is to reduce death and injuries on Irish roads to bring us into line with best practice countries. It will consolidate the reductions in deaths in 2006. During the life of this strategy, more than 400 lives will be saved and Ireland will move closer to becoming one of the best practice countries in the European Union.
The strategy outlines 126 actions and focuses on delivery and outcomes, with built-in targets and accountability. The measures contained in the strategy are based on international best practice and have the endorsement and commitment of all of the stakeholders involved. The RSA carried out a comprehensive public consultation process and the new strategy has the support of the public. It addresses and puts in place actions to deliver many of the provisions for which people have called in recent years and which have a proven road safety dividend in other best practice countries.
I will work with the RSA to ensure that each of the actions outlined in the strategy is delivered in full. An annual progress review will be undertaken by the RSA, which will oversee the implementation of the strategy and report to me on progress. It is an ambitious strategy and it behoves each and every one of us to support its full implementation.
There has been a 20% drop in deaths on Irish roads since the launch of the Government's first road safety strategy in 1998. This has been achieved despite a 52% increase in the number of vehicles on our roads. The reductions experienced in recent years have been continued in 2007. So far this year, 276 road deaths have occurred, which is a reduction of 32 compared to the same date last year. The core objective of the third road safety strategy, 2007 to 2012, is to build on this reduction through a range of measures in the education, engineering and enforcement areas.
The strategy also recognises the need to evaluate policies in order to establish whether they are working. The primary actions set out in the strategy include proposals to reduce road deaths to no greater than 60 fatalities per million population by the end of 2012, with demonstrable downward reductions in each year of the strategy. This equates to an average of 21 road deaths per month or 252 deaths per annum. The average number of road deaths per month so far this year is 28. The strategy also includes the proposal to reduce injuries by 25% and develop a reliable database for serious injuries based on data from the healthcare system and insurance industry by the fourth quarter 2008. It proposes to implement a safety camera network, in the region of 6,000 hours enforcement per month, to increase conformity with speed limits, to increase adult front seat belt wearing rates from 86% to 95% or better and increase the adult rate in the rear seat from 63% to 85% or better by 2012.
The strategy also identifies the need to legislate for and introduce a reduction in the legal blood alcohol level for drivers. The Government has accepted that recommendation. The precise level to which the blood alcohol content will be lowered will follow consideration of the outcome of research being carried out by the RSA into the incidence of drink driving. The target date for completion of this measure in the strategy is the second quarter 2009. This allows for the enactment of the necessary legislation and the adaptation of the enforcement technologies. I will do my best to ensure that as soon as the advice of the RSA on the proposed level is received in the coming months, the target date for the reduction of the blood alcohol content will be improved upon if possible.
It is also proposed to review legislation on the issues of roadside breath testing at the scene of a collision and drug driving, and consider appropriate enforcement options. On the issue of testing at the scene of collisions, the Government has committed, with the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General, that it will determine how existing legislation can be changed to bring about the compulsory testing of drivers at collision scenes, while having necessary regard to overriding medical circumstances.
On the engineering side, the NRA will invest €1.25 billion each year of the strategy on major interurban projects and will develop a new interurban network of motorways and dual carriageways from Dublin to Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford by 2010. There has always been a two-fold objective behind the roads programme, namely, the improvement of our economic infrastructure and the building of safer roads. An abundance of statistical evidence demonstrates that collision rates on our greatly improved stretches of road network are significantly lower than on those parts of the network where improvements are planned.
On education, the Road Safety Authority will implement road safety education programmes in preschool, primary, post-primary and third level facilities and in the community by the end of 2008. It is also proposed to research, develop and publish a national pedestrian safety strategy, a national motorcycling safety strategy and a national cycling safety strategy by the first quarter of 2009. The implementation of these further measures should assist in maintaining the downward trend in road deaths, which we have seen over the past 12 months.
I hope the support articulated by Opposition parties for the road safety strategy covering 2007 to 2012 is real and sustained. I hope it will not evaporate in the face of public opposition to some of the more difficult decisions that will have to be made to ensure the strategy succeeds.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to share time with Deputy O'Dowd.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to comment on the Minister's last point concerning our support and political opinion. When he was appointed, I suggested following our counterparts in Northern Ireland by putting political differences aside. If we had done so, we would have had a joint approach last weekend by forming a committee as they have done in the North after so many years of trouble. People from every party who are committed to road safety have joined forces there. We should have emerged last Friday with a plan in place. Fine Gael has some good ideas, which the Minister has had to introduce. We have others ideas also.
I ask the Minister to form such a committee by inviting not only the political parties, but also representatives of various organisations concerned with road safety to sit down together as a team. They forced the issue here two weeks ago. If that was done, we could have avoided what happened last week. I did not enjoy it but I anticipated on behalf of my party that we would be 100% behind what was going to happen last week. I got a bad omen in the morning, however, when I received a telephone call from a parent to say that twice a week, seven children were standing on a bus from Drogheda to Bellewstown. We were given a commitment that every school child in the country would have a seat belt, but that was not done. In order to avoid road deaths we must work together as they have done in Northern Ireland with Sinn Féin, the DUP and the SDLP. They did not make a political football of road safety, so we can learn from them in that respect.
The Road Safety Authority presented a draft plan on 17 May, which sought the introduction of legislation to reduce the blood alcohol limit for drivers from 80mg to 50mg per 100ml in conjunction with best European practice. That plan has been put back by two years, however, despite the fact that the introduction of such a measure has reduced road deaths elsewhere by 20%. Only three or four European countries have not yet reduced the blood alcohol limit for drivers. Twenty per cent of 300 is 60, but because we refused to implement best practice as proposed on 17 May, some 120 people have been sentenced to death over the next two years. Had we introduced that measure, 520 fewer people would die on our roads over the next two years, instead of Gay Byrne's figure of 400 lives saved.
While that measure could have been introduced, something that could not happen concerning provisional licence holders was to be done in four days. That is why our young people rebelled. We legislate for them, not for Members of this House. I have a son and daughters, and my friends have sons and daughters, who want best practice to be introduced. They are giving out to the older generation for drinking and driving. They are the ones who must get taxis at great expense. Over the next two years, 120 people will die because we played politics by not introducing a law reducing the blood alcohol limit until after the second quarter of 2009.
The draft plan of 17 May proposed that every school in Ireland — there are almost 4,000 of them — would provide a road safety plan to be drawn up by parents, children, the school boards of management, the Garda Síochána, county road safety officers and transport experts. That proposal has been watered down to a miserable wording "to include a road protocol". Why was that done? Tragedies have occurred involving school children, so every school needs a road safety plan. I cannot understand why this proposal was watered down instead of being implemented immediately. If it cost €10,000 per school, as we proposed, that would only amount to €40 million. We must educate our young people about road safety.
School transport is currently in a mess whether it concerns schools in Lismullen, Bellewstown, Bettystown, Trim or anywhere else. Everybody wants to avoid transport mayhem when their children travel to school, so why have such proposals been put on the long finger? It is unacceptable. We might not like changing our ways but it is wrong to play politics with people's lives. Some 120 people have been sentenced to death because we did not introduce best practice, as recommended to the Department of Transport by the Road Safety Authority on 17 May.
I ask the Minister to bring us all together to form a committee in this respect. Tracy Hogan was 100% right in commenting that this issue became a political football, which was wrong. If the Minister wants co-operation he should not treat us, or anyone involved in road safety, as if we are on the outside. In the end, the people in Donegal forced the issue concerning legislation last Wednesday week. Last week, the young people of Ireland forced the issue, not myself or any other Deputy. Backbenchers from all parties got it in the teeth. We legislate for them and they want best practice to be introduced. They do not want to be considered any differently from people in France, Germany, Italy or any other country. It was wrong for a recommendation made over five months ago to have been put on the back burner. We then tried to ram something down people's throats in four days that would have brought the country to a standstill.
We will work with the Minister in order to save time and save our children's and grandchildren's lives. He should not treat us as if we are on the outside, however. A committee should have been established the minute the Minister took office. I have made this point in this House and on the radio. If Sinn Féin, the DUP and the SDLP can do it after shooting each other for 30 years in the North, we can sit on a committee and follow their example. I am asking the Minister to introduce such a committee and we will work with him. If he gives commitments we will ensure the work is done. We will take the blame with him but we will lend a hand if we are asked to do so. He should not treat us or the public like he did with his announcement last Thursday.
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I welcome this important, albeit brief, debate. The issue is the Government's record on road safety. This is the third such policy document that has been issued. The most important target in the last policy document was that there should be less than 300 road deaths in 2006, although everybody understands that any death is unacceptable. Unfortunately, that target was not met and 368 people died on our roads last year. When we talk about people signing up to targets, we must remember that the fundamental target in the last road safety strategy was not met. I acknowledge that there were significant reductions in that road deaths between 2001 and 2006 were cut by 11%. However, countries such as France, Luxembourg and Portugal have reduced road deaths by much more — over 40% in France, 45% in Portugal and approximately 48% in Luxembourg. Notwithstanding any argument the Minister may make against what I am saying, if one looks at Portugal, car ownership in the same period increased by more than 138% whereas in Ireland the increase was 99%. Comparing like with like, we are not as effective as we ought to be. I agree with Deputy McEntee that by working together as a Parliament and community we can tackle this issue.
We were happy with a reduction of the blood alcohol limit to 50mg/100ml but disappointed that a Member on the Government side chickened out on that change. We need to reduce blood alcohol levels and the country is ready for that reduction. I cannot understand why this is not included in the Minister's document and will not happen until after the next local and European elections.
The Minister needs to tackle the problem of uninsured drivers and penalty points incurred by unlicensed drivers. It is estimated that there are 100,000 uninsured drivers who are three times more likely than other road users to be involved in a road traffic accident, six times more likely to drive while under the influence of alcohol and ten times more likely to be involved in other criminal activities. Tackling them will be a major task. We would have no problem teasing out these issues or reviewing the strategy at quarterly meetings of the Joint Committee on Transport. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform would have to be involved in tackling uninsured drivers, which would have a significant impact.
The Government has failed utterly to deal with the 108,000 drivers whose driving was erratic enough to warrant the application of penalty points but who do not hold Irish driving licences. We do not know whether they were Irish people driving without a licence. My research shows, however, that in many cases they are drivers from Northern Ireland and Great Britain, not from the accession countries. If 108,000 people can drive at will without incurring penalty points, the Minister has a massive problem on his hands. It is totally unacceptable that we must wait until other European countries merge their legislation.
The Automobile Association has submitted a proposal to the Department of Transport for a parallel driving licence system, whereby the Department would hold a copy of the licence of a driver who does not hold an Irish driving licence but comes to the notice of the police and incurs penalty points. The points could accrue on this copy until the driver is put off the road.
These two critical issues must be addressed. The Minister's difficulty last week arose not from what he proposed to do but from the fact that his Department had failed repeatedly to organise driving tests. Unless the waiting period is significantly reduced, he cannot apply any new regulation. He says it will be ten weeks but one of his predecessors, Deputy Cullen, said it would be four weeks. His biggest failure is that he did not listen to others and think about those issues but I am not here to lecture him because the public has made up its mind on the issue.
We are prepared to work with the Government and other parties and community groups on the road safety strategy. I fully support Deputy McEntee's proposal. The Joint Committee on Transport could review targets quarterly with the various players involved.
The French have reduced their number of road deaths by almost 50% by revising conditions for learner drivers. After a preliminary test, a learner driver must complete 400 kilometres with a qualified driving instructor, attend classroom sessions accompanied by the designated supervising driver who must be aged 28 years or over and whose licence has been clean for the previous three years. The learner driver must complete a log and a total of 3,000 kilometres with a supervisor before going out on the public road. Newly qualified drivers must display a special plate for their first year and their maximum speed is limited to 90 km/h. There is a great deal of work to be done in this respect which we will support in order that we can move forward together. Above all, the Minister must listen to what others say and consult. If he does, we can win this battle.
Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I wish to share time with Deputy Broughan. I will speak for approximately two minutes.
Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Broughan for sharing his time.
Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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He was not very generous.
Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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He would have given me more time but I am sure he will address the salient points in the argument.
There is a gross disparity resulting from the outsourcing of driver testing to private companies. The list of centres on the on-line driving application form on the Road Safety Authority, RSA, website does not include every centre to which drivers may apply. I know of people who waited months for their test only to be informed by telephone that it had been outsourced to a private company at a test centre other than the one to which they had applied. They received no notification of this change in writing.
Applicants who move to live in another part of the country encounter serious difficulties in transferring their application to test centres at their new location. I know a man who applied for a driving test in Tallaght where he was living but who later moved permanently to Mallow. He sought in writing to do his test at the Mallow test centre. Since then he has received two test dates from SGS in Tallaght. He has received no correspondence acknowledging his request to change test centres. SGS management told him it had nothing to do with the contract for testing in Cork. He will soon have to move to his third provisional licence before receiving a driving test date.
The testing system is farcical and until this is sorted out, the rate of fully qualified drivers will increase only marginally, not at the rate the Government and the RSA anticipate, certainly not in the ten week timescale determined by the Minister or, as he put it, "on demand".
Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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The Labour Party has long supported the reform of the provisional driving licence system. It has also been an unwavering supporter of a robust and effective road safety strategy. It has consistently urged the Government to do much more to address the ongoing carnage on the roads. The appallingly shambolic way in which the Minister attempted to change the provisional licence system in the past week has unforgiveably damaged the new and necessary road safety strategy, put the Garda in an impossible position and caused untold distress to young drivers and their families. It has also harmed the RSA which has undertaken outstanding work under its chairperson, Gay Byrne, and chief executive, Noel Brett, since its establishment last year.
I welcome the fact the Minister has recognised that four days over a bank holiday weekend is an unrealistic and ridiculously short lead-in time for increasing the restrictions on provisional licence holders. However, there remain serious questions about the viability of the new deadline of 30 June 2008, and whether the driving testing regime will be able to cope with the huge volume of drivers who will now have to get their full license by that date. I hope the Minister will address these concerns in his reply.
In July 2006 our spokesperson on transport in the last Dáil, Deputy Shortall, published a detailed policy document on driver education and licensing entitled Driving for Life. Deputy Shortall correctly identified the reform of driver testing and the ending of years of waiting lists as critical prerequisites for a massive culture change in driver education. At that time there was an average waiting time of 34 weeks and a waiting list of 140,000 provisional drivers, with a further 280,000 who had not applied for a test.
Deputy Shortall set out a comprehensive strategy to reduce to six weeks the waiting time for tests, as well as a reduction of the huge backlog to 24,500 provisional licence holders. She argued strongly in favour of the introduction of a graduated licensing system along the lines of the system in New Zealand and Finland. Under these proposals, the Labour Party strongly supported the introduction of the graduated learner driver system, but felt that a radical reform and reduction of the driver test waiting lists was essential before the learner driver system could be launched successfully.
I attended a lunchtime briefing session in the Department of Transport last Thursday, for which I would like to thank the Minister, and then the launch of the new Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012. Thursday's publication presented Opposition spokespersons with 126 proposals on improving road safety. We had no advance notice of what would be in the strategy, although there had been much speculation that it would address issues such as a decrease in the legal blood alcohol limit. I expressed disappointment that the Minister again refused to make a decision on whether to reduce the blood alcohol limit to 50 mg. Instead of clearly stating whether they wished to maintain the present 80 mg limit, the Minister and the Taoiseach procrastinated and again kicked this issue into touch. They proposed to undertake another consultative process, with legislation to be brought forward in the second quarter of 2009. However, international research has long confirmed that there are significant cuts in road fatalities and injuries from a reduction to the 50 mg blood alcohol limit.
There were several proposals in the strategy, including the license permit system, that were described in an alarmingly brief and vague way and raised immediate questions about their effective implementation. The statement issued by the Labour Party concentrated on implementation and Dáil invigilation. Although we knew the new learner permit law was to come into effect yesterday, significant parts of the graduated driving license permit scheme would not be implemented until the end of 2008 and into 2009. The other deadlines and targets in the strategy, which I warmly welcome, left many questions regarding the legislative backing for the changes being introduced. To add to the confusion, the Minister stated that the law on driving unaccompanied would now be enforced, but then that there would not be a heavy-handed approach by the Garda Síochána in the area. At the press conference we detected a confused response from the platform, as the Garda Commissioner and the chief executive of the RSA, Mr. Brett, gave a totally different slant to the enforcement system.
Most people concerned with road safety saw the need for reform of the provisional driving license system, but I was struck by the comments of the chairman Mr. Gay Byrne, that the RSA was dealing with decades of neglect in driving training and road safety. That neglect has been particularly acute in the past ten years, in spite of the two road safety documents. The Labour Party document stressed that waiting times must be down to a maximum of six weeks if a new graduated licence regime had any chance of being successfully implemented. Why did the Minister not embark on a more realistic programme of introducing the new system?
The RSA stated that the average waiting time for a driving test is around 18 weeks or five months. This may be the experience in some areas, but in other areas it is significantly longer than this, as Deputy Sherlock illustrated. Several constituents of mine have been waiting since last January for driving tests at the Raheny driving test centre. They did their best to do the test, yet it just was not forthcoming. The Tallaght driving test centre has amazingly been closed down, with a 60 week waiting list. Today's edition of The Irish Times quoted a 23 year old man from Wicklow who waited 40 weeks to sit his second driving test, having waited 51 weeks to sit his first test.
Last Friday and Saturday we experienced an extraordinary uprising by the young people of Ireland and their families. They pointed out to us very forcefully how unrealistic it would be to introduce the new learner driver system without adequate preparation to prevent the law being brought into disrepute. There are a few questions I would like the Minister to address, given his extraordinary U-turn. The chief executive of the Driving Instructor Register, Mr. Des Cummins, has expressed grave doubts that the backlog will be cleared by 30 June 2008. Mr. Cummins stated that clearing the backlog of 122,000 drivers on second provisional licenses is "not do-able whatsoever" and that a huge number of people will now also apply for their driving tests "in a panicked way, pushing up the numbers". Mr. Cummins also cited the 50% driving test failure rate. Mr. Tom Hoare of IMPACT stated that the total number of driving test applications is unquantifiable at the moment, as so many paper applications have arrived at the Ballina headquarters. Can the Minister give us any indication how he will achieve the target by the June 30 deadline?
The RSA indicated today that it may mandate the private company SGS to increase the number of driving tests that it processes from 2,000 to 8,000 per week. However, will the Minister and the Minister for Finance provide the requisite funding in this area? I notice that there is a threat to the funding of the road safety agencies in the pre-budget statement. The Minister must also assure us that there are strong quality control mechanisms in place to assess the operation of driving tests by SGS, after the RSA had to carry out an internal audit and increase the training of SDS instructors, due to inconsistencies in its driving test procedures.
There is a whole range of questions that remain, including the situation regarding insurance for provisional drivers. This caused a great deal of confusion and fear for many provisional licence holders who believed that from last Monday at midnight, their insurance policies would be invalidated if they were unaccompanied drivers involved in any sort of road collision. This was particularly distressing for people holding second provisional licenses. We have read the assurances given by individual insurers, but there remains a serious question mark over the insurance status of people holding second provisional licenses. Can the Minister enlighten us on this matter tonight?
This has been an extraordinary weekend. Senior Members of this House, like the Leas-Ceann Comhairle, have said they have seen nothing like it in their political life, such was the public reaction. The stress and anxiety caused, as well as the possible damage to the road safety strategy, is the fault of the Minister. He willfully decided to do this in a country where public transport is woefully deficient, where people wait up to 60 weeks for a driving test, where our infrastructure is 40 years behind the rest of Europe. I note from the global competitive index, compiled by the World Economic Forum, that our infrastructure has been slated. Our ports were ranked in 64th place, our roads in 60th place and our railway infrastructure in 55th place, out of about 130 countries.
Last Thursday, I attempted to highlight the appalling fact that there has been no road safety strategy in place for the past year, as the last strategy only lasted until 2006. That is why we asked both the current Minister for Transport and his predecessor to consider their positions. The current Minister for Social and Family Affairs was responsible for the failure to have the next road strategy ready.
The key aspect of road safety is enforcement. The document presented to us shows a target of 1,200 from the Garda traffic corps by the end of 2008. It is surely pointless to roll out a series of improvements if we are not prepared to put the invigilation in place. I welcome the introduction of cameras, which appear to play a fundamental role in the United Kingdom and other countries. However, what will happen in this regard?
I support the remarks of my colleagues regarding the new Joint Committee on Transport, which I understand will be chaired by Deputy Fahey. I agree with the suggestion of Deputies O'Dowd and McEntee for a quarterly or six-monthly report on this subject and that the Minister should appear before the committee. Last weekend, I made the point to some of the media that I did not understand the reason the Minister did not come before the House to present Members with the road safety strategy. He is not alone in this regard as he is one of a group of Ministers who always appears to take the smart public relations option of presenting a new document in the Department of the Taoiseach or in the Royal Hibernian Academy. For example, he presented a Deloitte & Touche document on the future of the ESB at a special press conference. He presented the White Paper on Energy on a Sunday afternoon when the Opposition had no chance to respond. This House is the place in which to present all documents that are as important as the road safety strategy.
Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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This constitutes a significant reform. Hence, a unique situation has arisen early in the life of this Dáil. A senior Minister and his Department have overseen two disasters in public policy in rapid succession. Many Members suspect that the road safety strategy was rushed out to draw attention away from the Shannon debacle. If this was the intention, it has rebounded badly on both the Department and its Minister, Deputy Dempsey. The end result of both policy disasters has been to let down tens of thousands of our people, first in the mid-west, and second throughout Ireland. In baseball and Californian law there is a precept, namely, "three strikes and you're out". This Minister has missed twice and for the sake of the people, he should not miss a third time.
Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad that logic has eventually prevailed and these new contentious proposals affecting provisional licence holders will not come into force until much later. However it is unclear whether the Government will live up to its promise and reduce dramatically driving test waiting times. The ill-thought out and rash plan of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, showed how out of touch he is with the daily lives of thousands of drivers who hold provisional licences. His introduction almost overnight of a crackdown on holders of provisional licences driving unaccompanied by a driver with two years experience on a full licence sent thousands of drivers into a panic. While previous speakers have dealt with this point adequately, my constituency office and mobile telephone were hopping for large portions of Friday and the weekend. I imagine the Leas-Cheann Comhairle had the same experience.
It is due in large part to the failed transport policies of successive Governments that a large proportion of the population relies on the private car to take children to school, travel to work or go shopping. The lack of public transport, both buses and rail, as well as a system that is not integrated does not provide a significant number of people with any viable alternative. Many provisional licence holders have no option but to drive alone and unsupervised due to inadequate public transport or a backlog lasting months or longer before sitting their driving tests, or both.
The Minister's new proposals would have created havoc in people's lives by criminalising them for their necessary daily commutes without providing sufficient time to apply for and sit their driving tests. More than 120,000 drivers hold second provisional licences, and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, has shown contempt for them all. The Minister's humiliating U-turn seems to be just another in a string of farcical events at the Department of Transport. I refer to the exposure last week of officials and their so-called breakdown in communication regarding the Shannon debacle.
When the Minister announced these new proposals, Sinn Féin's spokesperson on transport and road safety, Senator Pearse Doherty, stated immediately that the new measures were harsh, particularly when waiting times for driving tests were taken into account. The onus is now on the Government to resolve the issue of long driving test waiting times. This situation has not occurred overnight but has been simmering for years. For example, retired driving instructors were not replaced. Fianna Fáil has presided for years over a system whereby a person could drive to a test centre, perform his or her driving test, fail miserably and drive back home. This is ludicrous.
On a positive note I commend some of the actions contained in the new road safety strategy that mirror Sinn Féin's proposals in its all-Ireland road safety policy document, from the introduction of a graduated licensing system to the introduction of a comprehensive road safety education programme in schools. However, some progressive proposals still are not being implemented. According to the Road Safety Authority, the new stipulation that a first-time permit holder must have held the permit for six months before he or she can take a test will allow drivers to gain some experience. However, it is feasible that drivers could get their permit and leave their cars parked outside their houses for a six-month period without driving them. My party has proposed the introduction of an island-wide requirement for learner drivers to carry out 120 supervised hours in various conditions, such as on motorways, in busy traffic, on rural roads, on varying surfaces and in different light and weather conditions. This would ensure that drivers gain vital experience.
Sorting out the driving licence mess is just one step towards improving road safety. The Government must also invest significantly to update and improve the condition of the roads and eradicate accident black spots. It must try to end the culture of speeding through increased traffic patrols at such spots and the strategic use of speed cameras. It must also try to end the culture of impaired driving with the introduction of a zero alcohol and drug limit and the provision of more public transport, especially in rural areas. In addition, the Government must provide for pedestrians and cyclists by improving footpaths and increasing the quality and quantity of cycle lanes. It should increase the uptake of optional safety features by exempting safety elements in cars from VRT, reducing motorcycle safety equipment to the lowest possible level of VAT and reducing other related car safety equipment, such as car seats, or bicycle safety equipment to the lowest possible level of VAT.
Road safety policy is crucial as it saves lives. However, I question the Minister's commitment to oversee such policy. Many options are available for safety control measures such as, for example, speed control devices that could be attached to cars. Such a system has been described to me. It operates with a credit card-type device that could be set at a local centre to limit the speed of the vehicle in question to the designated speed of 50 km/h, 80 km/h or whatever. An opportunity exists at present to begin to think outside the box and be creative and innovative. This would probably require a complete review of the entire system. However, there is no reason not to have such a complete overhaul of the system at this juncture. We are not obliged always to follow the British model. I do not make this point with a chip on my shoulder or in an anti-British way. I do not suggest all their systems are filled with gobshites but we must create our own space in this regard.
I do not know the percentage of those who are queuing for driving tests who have been put in that position because their licence has lapsed. Many Members will be aware that one's driving licence invariably sits in one's wallet and if one has a ten-year licence, it is easy to forget to renew it. I only take my licence out when I have been stopped at a checkpoint, which is rare. I no longer need it for access to public places of entertainment to demonstrate that I am over 18 years of age. In such circumstances, it is easy to forget that one's licence has expired. I understand that one is obliged to re-sit one's test after a six-month period. An automatic reminder should be put in place. This is an information technology issue involving the issuing of an automatic reminder, perhaps three months before the date of expiry, to the licence holder to advise him or her of the situation. This would reduce the numbers of those who await driving tests to some degree.
The Minister made what was probably his only valid point in his comments last week when he noted that the issues in question literally are matters of life and death. I accept this crucial point made by the Minister. The Minister's preferred destination must be reached as rapidly as possible and other colleagues have already noted that all Opposition Members will support him in this regard. However, the effort to do so almost overnight was an enormous mistake. Hopefully lessons can be learned and I hope, for everyone's sake, the proposed driving test waiting period target figures can be achieved.
Recently, I have detected something of a refusal culture among some driving testers. I do not wish to be unfair because everyone who takes a driving test is naturally highly nervous, anxious and in a fraught state on his or her arrival at the centre in the first place. Just last week there was a case in the Dundalk centre in which a person arrived to be tested for a PSV licence in a minibus. The tester would not accept the person for testing because there was no tachograph installed in the vehicle. The minibus could have been an exempted vehicle under the requirements for tachograph provision, but no account was taken of this. There was no questioning to establish whether it was in fact an exempted vehicle. The tester merely said "No tachograph — no test. Go home." The person had to leave. There was a job at stake in that case and other issues were involved. Driving test centres need to be examined to ensure that a culture such as this does not prevail and that some allowance is made for the anxious state in which people arrive.
Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputies for their contributions. With all the activity and the political statements that were made over the weekend one would have expected people to be a bit rougher. I acknowledge and thank the Deputies for their constructive approach. My mother used to say that the person who never made a mistake never made anything. Early on Friday morning, in view of the response to the five days' notice for people to get their house in order, it was quickly evident to me that I had a choice to make. One possibility was to brazen it out, as I could have, which would probably have resulted in my losing the almost universal support I had in the area of road safety across and outside the political divide. The alternative was to do as I did. When I first came to the House, the definition of a U-turn was for somebody to say he would do something and then turn around and say he was not going to do it. That definition does not apply here. The U has gone a certain distance, but not all the way. We are going to do what we set out to do, but instead of doing it on 30 October we will do it on 28 June. That is a reasonable outcome from everybody's point of view.
I do not accept there was not enough notice of this measure. I give the Deputies opposite credit for this, but their predecessors as far back as 2002 and 2003 were saying this should be introduced overnight.
Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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We did not say that.
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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We have tried to keep this constructive. We would appreciate if the Minister would do the same.
Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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That is exactly what I am saying.
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should not be scoring points.
Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I am just saying that this should not have come as a surprise. Nobody should have been surprised that we needed to get this in order.
A number of Deputies asked about the possibility of the Joint Committee on Transport reviewing the progress of the road safety strategy. That is a good idea. I am sorry if I missed——
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Could the Minister bring in some people who have lost people, who are committed and who have spent years on this? The Minister could broaden it——
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister should be allowed to continue.
Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am only asking him to consider it.
Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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My understanding was that members of the transport committee would review the road safety strategy in conjunction with those involved in delivering it, including myself, on a regular basis. I have no difficulty with that. One of the things about the road safety strategy is that it includes actions, implementation dates and so on. We should work on this together. There are difficult choices that must be made.
The road safety strategy went through various drafts. The current strategy is the one that was finalised and accepted by me. A 50 mg limit on blood alcohol may have been mentioned in earlier drafts, but the finalised draft was this one, which was agreed by everybody. I did not interfere in the matter of whether it would be 50 mg or 20 mg. I believe the limit should be reduced, as does the Government. The RSA wants a little more time to make a specific recommendation. I have no difficulty in going along with that. I have accepted the advice of the RSA on this issue as on many other issues. I cannot be accused of cherry-picking in this regard.
I will pursue the issue of uninsured drivers and penalty points, raised by Deputy O'Dowd. We are trying to obtain mutual recognition of disqualifications, points and so on, but I am concerned that this is not moving as fast as it should. I will report back to the House on this issue.
Tuition logbooks for learners were mentioned. I urge every Deputy to have a good look at one of the appendices of the Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012, which describes a graduated driving licensing system. There is a list of 17 measures associated with this system, some of which are along these lines. We will have to make choices about these measures over the next 12 to 15 months. This is also something we should do together in committee.
I acknowledge the constructive approach adopted by Deputies and I look forward to working together with them in delivering this strategy. It is extremely important for all of us.