Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I will deal with a subject many speakers have raised, namely, the fact that there is no limit on the number of provisional licences a person can have. One can fail one test after another and simply go onto the road with another provisional licence. A person can be a menace and still have the liberty to drive. That is not right and must not be allowed to continue. Many drivers are menaces who cause havoc on the road. I am not saying that all are provisional licence holders but many are. That will have to be looked into as part of a road safety strategy because the current situation is a farce.

I welcome the section of the Bill requiring driving instructors to be registered. It is about time such a measure was introduced because at the moment anybody can set up a school of motoring or act as a driving instructor without any knowledge or training in instruction. Will existing instructors be tested as to their competence? It is essential that they also meet the necessary competency levels.

We have so many provisional licence holders because of the farce that is the backlog of driving tests. The fact that nine positions went unfilled for four years shows how negligent the Government, the Minister and the Department have been in this regard. The Minister said that seven of those positions have now been filled and that ten testers were taken on last year. People on all sides of the House have spoken for many years about the backlog of driving tests. The current situation results from negligence of the highest degree.

I am pleased action has been taken on hand-held telephones but we all know that if drivers receive a call on a hands-free set, they must still take their eye off the road for a second or two to press a button, which is also dangerous. A previous speaker said all telephones were banned in one particular country. We must ban the use of hand-held telephones but should also review the use of carphones. It is important to have a telephone in a car at night for security and for use in the event of an emergency, but otherwise it should be turned off and stored in the glove compartment. The whole question of the use of mobile telephones in cars must be looked at, though it will not be popular with the industry. It is a contributory factor in that it distracts people's attention when they are on the roads.

Then there are accident blackspots, which have existed in some places for a number of years. Some of them are being attended to.