Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

notes the failure on the part of the Government to fully implement commitments designed to reduce road deaths; and calls on the Government to ensure the immediate provision of:

—a fully equipped and fully staffed independent traffic corps,

—a complete roll-out of the penalty points system,

—a complete nationwide roll-out of speed cameras,

—and an improvement in the driving standards and testing of motorists through the establishment of the Driving Testing and Standards Agency.

I have no doubt that my amendment will be accepted this evening, as the two previous speakers seemed to speak more in favour of it than the motion. There is little to congratulate the Government on its road safety record, as it is abysmal. We must consider that there is one accident on our roads every 21 minutes and one person is killed every 23 hours. In 2004, 378 people lost their lives on our roads, 43 more than in the previous year. This upward trend is continuing, with road deaths for 2005 up month on month from 20004. This is very worrying. In 2003 there was a significant drop in fatalities, but this was due mainly to a fear factor following the introduction of penalty points. This has long worn off and we are back to the bleak days of carnage and destruction on our roads.

The responsibility for the collapse in the effectiveness of the penalty point system lies solely with the Government. Motorists are no longer worried about getting caught committing motoring offences on the roads. Even if they do get caught there is a good chance they will get off once they go before the courts. Recent experience has proved this and it is not good enough.

The ineffectiveness of the penalty points system is due to the chronic lack of enforcement. The failure of the Government to deliver the extra gardaí since 2002 has made their presence almost non-existent on the roads. It is normal for someone to drive between two major cities without encountering a Garda checkpoint. Nothing has changed since this Government first took office. I do not hold the Garda responsible as it is doing its best, but it does not have the resources in manpower, equipment and information technology required for gardaí to carry out their duties effectively. The Government may let off steam by informing us that the extra gardaí are in the pipeline and that the traffic corps will solve our road fatalities crisis. However, I am far from convinced.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, after much fanfare and over two years late, finally announced the establishment of a traffic corps late last year. The reality is that over the next few years this is likely to change little on our roads. The current staffing level of 530 may seem impressive, but this figure represents the merger of the existing Garda traffic units nationwide. By December 2005, the new traffic corps will increase by only 33, which is about one garda per county. This will hardly have a great impact. The Minister knows well that we needed 700 extra gardaí for the traffic corps, which was promised over two years ago.

Bad law enacted by the Government, namely the Road Traffic Act 2002, has further enhanced the public's perception that it is all right to break road safety laws and be reasonably confident of not facing the rigours of the law. The thousands of motorists before the courts for breaking the speed limits have effectively got off the hook because of problems with the Act. The failure of motorists to get a paper print-out giving details of their speeding offences caught on speed cameras or hand-held devices has meant that many judges have struck out these cases. This has increased the public's lack of confidence in our road safety provisions.

While there is no single cause of road accidents, in the majority of cases driver error is at fault. It is little wonder then we have such a high fatality on our roads. To put it bluntly, the system in Ireland does not produce good and capable drivers and our existing driving test system is a total mess. The current Government has sat back and allowed this chaos to continue and has done nothing during its term in office to tackle the serious deficiencies in the system.

The greatest problem is the number of provisional drivers on our roads. There are 300,000 people on a provisional licence, with 130,000 of them waiting to take a test. Effectively, almost 20% of drivers on our roads do not have a full driving test. In many respects, including the absence of a full driving licence, they are not fully competent to be on our roads. We would not be happy if a similar situation existed with regard to doctors. If a doctor was not fully qualified, we would not put up with having him or her carry out operations.

However, there appears to be no problem with having unqualified drivers on our roads. While I fully understand the situation faced by provisional drivers who must learn the rules of the road and how to drive properly before they can progress to a full licence, the problem in Ireland is that this has become a permanent state of affairs. Provisional licences were not intended to be licences for life, merely a stage of driver progression. However, the fact that many people spend years without ever sitting a full driving test is the responsibility of this ineffectual Government.

With 130,000 people waiting to sit a test, there is no prospect of them getting a full licence for many months, even years. It is the norm for many on provisional licences to have to wait up to a year before being called for a test. If they fail the test, they are put back to the bottom of the queue to languish for another year. In the meantime, they continue to drive.

We need to get the system moving. The Minister has promised us a new super-efficient agency, the Driving Testing and Standards Authority, but this will achieve nothing if the Department of Transport does not hire additional testers. These have been promised since 2002, but we have got nothing. What is wrong with the Minister for Transport that he cannot put his foot down and demand that the Minister for Finance provide the extra funding needed to supply these testers? Only this will cut the queues. Creating another layer of bureaucracy will not.

If we are to create better drivers on our roads, it is clear that drivers need better instruction. We currently have a farcical situation where anyone can set up shop as a driving instructor and offer lessons. This is incredible. One does not even need to have a full driving licence or a car to offer this service. How can we be assured that learner drivers are getting the best possible instruction if we cannot be assured of the quality of the instruction they are receiving? We need better regulation of this area.

It is hardly surprising that almost half of those who sit the driving test fail. There is no quality control over what they are being taught. This is just another example of the problems with our driving standards. These inadequacies have been pointed out time and again to the Minister for Transport and his predecessors, yet they have not acted on the matter. How many more people will be killed before this Government is motivated to act? I do not have any confidence that things will change soon.

What needs to be done is obvious to all. It is beyond me why this Government, despite almost eight years in power, has done so little. The Government cannot sit on its hands any longer. Since it took office, 3,381 people have died on our roads and almost 70,000 have been injured through road accidents. The Government must increase the Garda presence on our roads immediately, fast-track the traffic corps to full complement and improve driving standards and instruction. It must move immediately to cut waiting times and move drivers off provisional licences onto full licences by hiring additional testers. If the Government fails to act, the carnage will continue on our roads for years to come.