John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

We all welcome the opportunity today to have a debate on road safety. As Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport during the last Dáil, I had the privilege of working with a number of groups and organisations and making various contributions in respect of what could be done in this area. Last year was probably the best year for road safety in a long time, with a serious reduction in the number of deaths. However, much more can be done.

One does not need to single out any particular group in this regard. Across the board, every citizen who uses our roads, be they motorists, pedestrians or cyclists, has an obligation with regard to road safety. On many occasions these obligations are disregarded by some people. The chances they take and their actions can lead to the deaths of others or total disablement. We have all seen cases where negligence has been a major contributor in many accidents.

We must not look solely at drivers, although perhaps I should first deal with them. Across the board we accept that the behaviour of certain drivers leaves much to be desired, such as the driver who turns out from a side road without looking or one who drives at 150 mph on a motorway, twice the legal limit. On a motorway one has a better chance of avoiding trouble than on a country road because of the quality of the road. The Minister of State referred to this in his contribution. It is safer to drive at 100 mph on a motorway than 40 mph on second class or third class roads in rural Ireland, which are deathtraps at current speed limits. On some of these roads the limit is 80 km/h when 50 km/h would be more appropriate.

Local authorities have the power to impose speed limits on county, rural and regional roads. There is an obligation on them to fulfil this commitment by deciding what roads should have reduced speed limits. Local authorities should do a survey of every road under local authority management in order to decide the speed limits for those roads. Regional roads, with a speed limit of 80 km/h, are on a par with national secondary roads but would be quite safe with a limit of 100 km/h. There is an obligation on local authorities to address this.

We must consider various types of drivers in this debate. There is a backlog of learner drivers who hold provisional licences, with which we must deal. This will be a major problem, particularly for those in rural Ireland. Many of them are capable of getting to and from their nearest town without accidents or mistakes. Those in their 50s or 60s would be shellshocked if they had to sit a theory test even though they have been driving free of accidents for up to 30 years. We must provide support to these people, such as proper tuition by driving instructors or some other system to ease the difficulties older people have in passing the test. Some have learning difficulties, which must be accepted and for which provision must be made.

There is a group of people with a high accident rate, those in the first two years of holding a full licence. We are not running down this group. There are, however, people who feel they could participate in the world rally championship in Sligo this weekend as soon as they walk out of the test centre with a licence. We need a learner permit and a post test permit to keep such people under control. It has been suggested that those who have passed the test less than two years prior to committing an offence such as speeding or dangerous or careless driving would receive higher penalties. This would be a means of deterring young people who pass the test from abusing the licence. The drivers licence is a right to use the road, not the right to abuse it or others on the road.

Another prevalent category is non-national drivers. I am not critical of people who work here and make a tremendous contribution to our country. Some of their driving, however, is questionable, to put it mildly. The sad part is that statistics show that the incidence of serious accidents is far higher for non-nationals than for those who hold Irish licences. This must be pursued. This category of people also bring cars into Ireland that do not conform to standards of the NCT. In conjunction with the Department of Transport the Road Safety Authority should insist that a vehicle in this State for more than one month must be put through the NCT. This must be considered for road safety and for the general safety of those who use our roads. I ask the Minister of State to relay to the Minister for Transport and to the Road Safety Authority that this must be tackled quickly. Along with scrappage incentives the NCT did a tremendous job in removing bangers from the road and we should consider another scrappage scheme for older and less efficient cars that are responsible for CO2 emissions to be removed before the end of life of the vehicle.

Ireland has had tremendous success with regard to reducing road deaths. Some 120,000 extra vehicles, either new or imported, go on the roads every year. This means an extra 120,000 drivers on our roads. Despite this we have managed to reduce the accident and serious injury rate. The Garda Síochána must be complimented on its diligence in dealing with road safety. The cameras may be a good idea but Garda presence is a better incentive. A camera will have been installed for no more than one day before one can go on the Internet and find out its location. There is one camera on the N4, at the Lucan Spa Hotel, and those caught speeding by it should be asked where they have been for the past ten years. Very few people are caught on that stretch of road because they know where the camera is located. There must be another mechanism, such as Garda presence or unmarked cars, because fixed point cameras are as relevant as an ashtray on a motorbike. They will serve no purpose if one can find out their locations on the Internet. In the UK, satellites can tell where every camera is located and the same will apply here.

Garda presence would be more effective because bad driving is as serious a problem as speeding and the culprits are not always learner or incompetent drivers. In many cases the bad driving is done by those who believe they are so competent they can push everyone else to the side of the road. The only way to deal with this is with unmarked Garda cars. Gardaí using unmarked cars will not take long to take people in and award them penalty points. When people pass four penalty points on their licences, they begin to think.

The final group to which I wish to refer is pedestrians. It is terrible that pedestrians using the roads in the winter do not wear any form of reflective gear. I appeal to these people to wear reflective jackets or armbands when they are walking on the roads at night. Senator Donohoe indicated the number of miles he drives on average each year. If he lived in a rural area, he might drive between 40,000 and 50,000 miles per year. People who live in rural areas definitely see a different aspect of this matter than their counterparts in urban areas.

I would have liked to discuss permits and the issue of road safety in general. What is emerging from this debate is that the situation is clearly improving. It is also emerging that we must begin to educate people about this matter while they are at school, put in place a permit system and teach individuals that when they go on the road they must respect, not abuse, the rules that apply.