Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Henry for sharing her time with me. I was my party's spokesman on transport until October of 2004. Unfortunately, matters seem to have gotten worse in the intervening period, instead of getting better, despite the many excellent debates conducted in this House.

The former Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, gave a commitment to examine the issue of the high fatality rate for motor cyclists on Irish roads. Motorcyclists who do not have a full licence are not allowed to carry passengers but many do so. Statistically, motorcyclists represent the highest rate of fatalities and I am interested to know what work the Department has done in this area. Has any prosecution followed on from the former Minister's comments in the House over two years ago? That is something that can be tackled at a practical level.

I apologise to my colleagues, whom I am probably boring at this stage, but I must reiterate my call for the Department to examine the issue of drug testing drivers. I am sure that when drink testing for drivers was introduced, it was laughed at. At the time, many people were drink driving and the concept of them not doing so, or drinking in a limited fashion, would have been ridiculed. The time has now come for a similar debate on the issue of drug driving. A report was published in the United Kingdom which found that 20% of young motorists take to the road every day while high on illegal drugs. A startling finding was that young people are now twice as likely to be driven by somebody high on drugs as someone who is over the alcohol limit. While the Minister of State has only recently been appointed he must urgently examine the issue of drug driving. He should at least commission a study based on the English example, or the example of other countries, to ascertain how big is the problem. I am sure it is far worse than we can even imagine.

I fully agree with what Senator Mansergh said regarding speed limits on the Naas Road. I travel on the road every day. The speed limit is 60 km/h, which is totally unrealistic. If I were to get penalty points while travelling on the road I would be extremely upset. Will the Minister of State examine that issue, discuss it with the relevant authority and revise the limits upwards? They are completely unrealistic. Travelling at 60 km/h would cause a crash. It would be an extremely raw deal for people to receive penalty points on their licences because of the temporary roadworks. Special leeway should be given in that case.

In a debate on road safety yesterday a call was made to reduce the alcohol limit to zero. I do not agree with that. Perhaps I am in the minority. This is a rural country. People should be allowed to have one or two drinks and drive if they feel they are competent to do so and are below the current limit. The idea of a zero alcohol limit would only cause more trouble. People need to go to pubs for social interaction. We should not cut that off in a rural setting. Common sense is needed.

I put a question to the Minister of Transport last week on provisional driving licence holders. We have more than 400,000 such drivers, almost 30,000 of whom are on their fifth or subsequent provisional licence. That means they may have been driving for the past eight years without either having sat or passed a driving test. That is shocking.

I advise the Department that it should not issue statements about revamping the driving test. Its main priority is to clear the backlog. Otherwise we only fool ourselves. Will the Minister of State follow the example of the NCT test? If that test is failed, the driver can return a week or two later to put the car through it again. The notion recently put forward by the Minister for Transport whereby a person who fails his or her driving test would not be allowed to drive afterwards is only fine if he or she can resit the test within a short time period and not face another year-long waiting list.