Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

——and the Bill.

First, I welcome it from the perspective of public administration. It is good that a discrete function such as this is hived off into an authority. It is a priority in its own right. Notwithstanding what one of my colleagues said, I am pleased that someone of the profile of Gay Byrne will chair the body. It will guarantee that what he says and does will get substantial media coverage, which is the point. The Podge and Rodge aspect might appear in some of the tabloids, but that might switch off many other people. There are pluses and minuses to this aspect.

I am pleased the authority will be located in Ballina. Part of the Government's decentralisation policy was that when setting up new authorities it would, in principle, consider locations outside the capital. It is one more sign that the mantra one reads in the national media from the Opposition that decentralisation is a total failure, it is going nowhere and so on is untrue because the authority is going to Ballina.

The issue of testing was debated on the Order of Business. I do not have a problem with any public safety function, whether it is rail safety, road safety, air safety or fire safety, being run by a public authority. Obviously there must be sufficient people to carry out the function. The Minister of State gave details in his speech of extra recruitment. I do not have the ideological point of view that everything is more efficient and better if it is carried out by a private agency. I hope I am not part of a diminishing minority who believe in the values of public service, which are particularly relevant where safety is concerned.

I note what the Minister of State said about disqualifications being recognised within these islands. However, he did not specify that it applies to penalty points. This matter has preoccupied the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body. It is a meaningless exercise from the point of view of people who acquire penalty points on the M1 this side of the Border but who have Northern registered cars, and vice versa for cars from the South travelling north of the Border.

Substantial road improvements have taken place, which makes a contribution to road safety. While there is an enormous amount of work to be done, which will take at least 30 or 40 years, over the past ten years, the Government has put very significant resources into improving the road network. However, I fully accept there is a long way to go.

I would like to make one point about speed limits, which may be counter-intuitive. If speed limits are set much too low in certain areas, it encourages drivers to disregard them, and this may get them into the habit of doing so generally. A notorious stretch of roadway is the Naas dual carriageway where no one that I observe sticks to the 60 km/h speed limit. Perhaps the speed limit should be set at a more realistic level.

I have always queried dual carriageways such as the N11 or, for example, the road all the way to Fermoy. In Northern Ireland, the speed limit on these dual carriageways is 70 mph. Given that we have something which is practically up to motorway standard, I do not understand why people are forced, in theory anyway, to keep to 60 km/h. The road safety authority should consider credible speed limits on good roads. Apart from anything else, good roads are meant to be time-saving, but this will not happen if drivers are not allowed to travel at a speed which is within the capacity of the road. Generally speaking, I am pleased to say there appear to be very few accidents on our motorways. The accidents about which one hears day after day rarely happen on motorways.

We all read with great interest the comparative road safety statistics which show Ireland ranging roughly in the middle at 13th out of 25 countries. It is good in some aspects such as the wearing of seat belts but it is not so good in other aspects such as drink-driving. We must ask ourselves some searching questions. What is it that we as a people actually want?

Many of us value the relatively easy-going culture that exists in this country as opposed to a Nordic-Germanic rigid insistence on regulations. I have listened to debates in various groupings where people complain about speed cameras on clear stretches of road or gardaí lurking near restaurants and bars. This is exactly what the Swedish police do. If, on the one hand, we do not want this sort of culture, perhaps we should accept that more people will die. On the other hand, if we want to decrease road deaths, perhaps we will have to do things that are very unpalatable from a cultural point of view. We must think hard about this issue and make choices. I will not be dogmatic about what we should do, but we must realise that there are not many easy solutions.

Earlier in the debate, my colleague referred to having headlights on all day, an idea to which I would be resistant. I notice the countries she mentioned are all Nordic countries where the daylight is pretty dim during the winter months. It is not suggested that people should drive with the lights on in bright countries like Spain, Greece and other Mediterranean countries. Perhaps this issue should be examined further.

SUVs are responsible for many accidents, and cause more injury to people who come into contact with them, which needs to be examined. While they may make the driver feel fairly safe, they are also high off the ground which means there are blind spots and children and so on get killed in parking spaces because drivers cannot see behind them.

My final point relates to the experiences of haulage companies who drive all over Europe. In circumstances where asylum seekers gain access without the knowledge of either the driver or the owner of the company, heavy fines are imposed, regardless of the innocence of the people concerned. I am aware of a particular instance in Tipperary where a fine of £7,200 sterling was imposed for two asylum seekers who got onto a trailer without the knowledge of the driver. What can be done to protect lorries and trailers from being invaded in this way and having such severe fines imposed on them? It is something that the authorities of different countries should discuss because obviously it is very difficult for honest owners of companies to have large fines imposed on them.