Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

The Minister must have been a formidable footballer in his time because he has side-stepped every question I posed. Members of the Joint Committee on Transport visited the state of Victoria in Australia. That state has a body in place which is not dissimilar to the proposed road safety authority. The Victorian authority pools information from across the various sectors that deal with road safety, makes recommendations and enforces them. It effectively calls the tune.

Fundamental to road safety is the maintenance of road signage and markings but the Minister has not explained how he sees the authority working in this regard. The road safety authority must be able to make some recommendations on such matters, but to whom? Will it make recommendations to the National Roads Authority, the local authorities, the Minister for Transport or to the Joint Committee on Transport? It will not be making recommendations to Members of the Oireachtas because, following the first vote this evening, we will not be able to hold anybody accountable.

I hope the road safety authority will not be a talking shop. It must be given teeth. It must be able to make recommendations and have a free hand in many areas. If the authority makes recommendations, it should be given funding to ensure that the required safety measures are put in place to deal with accident black spots and dangerous stretches of road. On what basis will the authority receive information to carry out such tasks?