Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Question 7: To ask the Minister for Transport when he expects to introduce a lower drink driving blood alcohol limit; the reason for not meeting the deadline as set out in the road safety strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28490/09]

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 24: To ask the Minister for Transport when legislation will come into effect to reduce the drink driving limit. [28344/09]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will reduce the legal blood alcohol level from 80 mg per 100 ml to 50 mg per 100 ml; if this measure will be provided for in the new Road Traffic Bill; when this Bill will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28386/09]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Transport the reason he has not published the new road traffic (amendment) Bill; if he will include a provision for the mandatory testing of all drivers involved in a road collision in the legislation; the other key headings and objectives of the bill; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28385/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 24, 35 and 64 together.

In my reply to Question No. 5, I outlined the provisions on blood alcohol concentration and mandatory testing that will be included in the road traffic Bill, which is nearing completion. Clearly, I cannot at this stage specify when the new regime will come into place as the passage of the legislation will be a matter for the Oireachtas. As already mentioned, the new limits will require the recalibration or replacement of roadside breathalysers and evidential breath-testing machines in Garda stations.

The Bill will also provide for several amendments to existing legislation to improve the effectiveness of the fixed charge and penalty points system.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Will the maximum blood alcohol level recommended by the Road Safety Authority be included in the Bill? Does the Minister intend to have graduated penalties? Existing legislation permits the Minister to make an order to allow those whose blood alcohol levels are less than a certain limit to consent to surrendering their licences immediately and go off the road voluntarily, thus preventing their having to appear in court and eliminating the expense of court action. He has not made such an order to date.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is referring to administrative penalties. We stated on another occasion that the provisions in section 5, although in law, have never been commenced.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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That is right. The Minister has not commenced them.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The administrative penalties come under section 5. The Garda, the Courts Service and various others have a strong desire to ensure section 5 would become operational because it would free up significant time for the Garda and the courts. There was a difficulty about records and establishing what happened over the previous five years but that has been overcome and I hope to be able to put that into effect for many of the offences. On the other issues, because the Government has not approved the Bill I can say only that I take my advice on limits from the Road Safety Authority, RSA. It has advocated a reduction from 80 mg to 50 mg and to 20 mg in certain cases.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister expand on his point about what he will actually do in respect of this section?

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I have the same question. We are still waiting for the road traffic legislation. When will it be published? Will that be when the Dáil is not sitting? When can it be implemented? It is reported that last night at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting the Minister met severe opposition to the introduction of the 0.5 mg level, presumably from those representing vintners. Is the Minister seriously committed to implementing the RSA recommendation because the record shows that 37% of all fatal crashes involve alcohol and it is also a factor in approximately 50% of crashes involving young men. Will the lower, 0.2 mg limit, be in the legislation in respect of professional and learner drivers?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The Bill will take account of the blood alcohol concentration levels that the RSA proposed last year. I cannot anticipate Government decisions on this. When a few issues about fixed penalties are sorted out I will bring the final draft of the Bill to Government. It will be published as soon as Government has passed it and I hope it will have a speedy passage through the House.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I have raised the matter of fixed penalty points in question No. 9 so I will postpone that discussion. Will the Minister commence the section soon that provides that someone who has a low blood alcohol concentration but is technically over the limit can opt to surrender his or her licence on the spot without going to court? Can he give us a date? How will that operate?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Section 5 of the 2006 Act provides that if a person whose blood alcohol concentration is found to be between 80 mg and 100 mg accepts that fact and takes the fixed penalty he will be fined €300 - I think that is the fine - and will have to hand up his licence. Instead of going to court where he would be disqualified for 12 months he would be automatically disqualified for six months. That is the provision and we will operate on that principle.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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When does the Minister intend to commence that?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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We have to make a change to the Road Traffic Bill to make it feasible because there was a difficulty about the five-----

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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We will not see it before Christmas.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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It will be ready sometime in the autumn.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Mandatory testing at crash sites will be part of the Bill but is the Minister concerned that so many deadlines for the actions on the timetable in the road safety strategy are being missed? He has not delivered any of the following, the change to the blood alcohol concentration limit, due in the second quarter of 2009; action 72, the graduated driver licence, due in the third quarter, 2008; action 41, the random roadside mechanical checking programme, second quarter of 2008; action 34, the new speed limit engineering guidance for setting speed limits, third quarter of 2008; above all, action 26, the 6,000 hours of cameras, second quarter 2008; and action 23, the full roll-out of the traffic corps, fourth quarter 2008. I could go on. The Minister has failed again and again. Does the Minister recall the day he launched the strategy in the presence of Gay Byrne, Noel Brett and the rest of us? Is it not deplorable that he has missed so many targets in the road safety programme? Is he serious about this?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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This is the subject of a later question but the Deputy will be delighted to know, because he usually celebrates all our successes, all the actions listed for 2007 have been completed. A total of 24 actions of the RSA, which is the lead, or joint lead agency are under way and most are completed. A range of other actions across the road safety strategy, some of which were not due until 2010 and 2011, have been completed. I would like to stick to the indicative timetable as much as possible but sometimes the opportunity arises to do something further down the list and that causes slight delays in the earlier part of the list. The important point is that the road safety strategy is being implemented and is having a significant effect.