Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

At the first Ógra Fianna Fáil conference I attended in 1994, one of the issues on the agenda was how to reduce the cost of insurance for young drivers. It has also been a matter of discussion at every subsequent Ógra conference or meeting of young people.

The reduction of deaths and accidents on the roads is particularly noticeable in the four months since the Minister for Transport introduced the penalty points system. Those accidents and the costs involved account for the high cost insurance. The large number of young drivers affected by accidents is a sad reality. Horrific television advertisements illustrate the types of injuries suffered by people who survive motor accidents. Thankfully, their lives have been spared but they may be confined to wheelchairs or live in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives. The lives of young people, their parents, families and friends are ruined as a result of car accidents.

While it is important to reduce the cost of car insurance, we should broaden the debate and concentrate on how we can make it safer for young people, pedestrians, older people or the Queen Mother – who might be driving around Dublin in his new Jaguar – to use the roads. We must create an environment where it is safer to use the roads. Education is the principle method of achieving this. We should begin the education process for young people from their first year in secondary school. When I was much younger, the first thing I wanted to do when I was 17 was get my provisional licence. The next was to pass my test, which I did within six months of obtaining my licence. That does not happen anymore.

While I recognise the efforts that are being made by the Minister for Transport in the area of provisional licences, it is important that we build the notion of responsibility into our school curriculum. When my father allowed me to drive the car on my own for the first time after I had passed my test, he told me he was giving me a weapon with which I could kill someone if I did not use it responsibly. That is a message we need to get across to people, particularly the young.