Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

As Senator Quinn stated, three months is a reasonable time within which to report. However, an annual report is not much good. The benchmarking I outlined should also be included. The road safety authority should monitor itself on its failures and successes. Hopefully, it will be successful. Surely the road safety authority should have a role to play in advising local authorities on speed limits.

The National Roads Authority is building a number of roads throughout the country. In some parts, two lane carriageways are built. However, in some countries, such as South Africa and Australia, great use is made of roads where two lanes go in one direction and one lane goes in the other. A couple of miles down the road, two lanes go the other way. Such a system gives the traffic in each direction a reasonable chance to pass out vehicles.

If the road safety authority recommends that a new stretch of road being built should be a two plus one traffic lane system for the most part, if it is perhaps 18 km or 20 km in length, should it advise the National Roads Authority, the local authority or the Minister? How does that process work? A report may come in six months afterwards, and as Senator Quinn has mentioned, this is a considerable length of time. In many cases, time is of the essence for planning purposes.

I hope the Minister of State will accept the three month period, as it is a reasonable amendment. There are sections which could be accepted on Report Stage.