David Norris (Independent)

I thank Senator Quinn for sharing time and I welcome the Minister of State.

It is clear that a large preponderance of accidents involve many young people with alcohol taken driving on country roads in the early hours of the morning at weekends. If one applies a grid test, one will discover that it covers a significant number of these five or six elements. We must, therefore, examine these elements and address them.

I do not believe that travelling at speed is, of itself, dangerous. One need only consider Germany, where there are either no real speed limits or very high speed limits on the autobahns. It has not lead to any greater danger. It is a question of bad driving and bad manners on the part of road users and bad management of the roads on the part of us.

I am all in favour of equality. I note that women, who used to be much better and more courteous drivers than men, have achieved equality and are now just as ignorant and subject to road rage. I do not state this is specifically directed at male drivers. It now covers everybody.

Some people are prepared to cause a possibly fatal road accident rather than allow somebody legitimately to change lanes. I come across this frequently. If one attempts to pass somebody out on a motorway or a suburban street, the reaction from a man or a woman is to put the foot down and do his or her damnedest to prevent one from doing so. This may well place one in a situation where one must try to reduce speed and get back in behind this driver or face the possibility of going straight into oncoming traffic. It is a question of manners. We also seem to have a great deal of road rage, particularly in the city of Dublin.

Travel at speed is not of itself a danger. What is dangerous is having completely inconsistent and chaotic speed limits and the ordinary driver has no incentive to respect them. I have stated this on numerous occasions during previous debates. It was eventually taken up by the previous Minister who quoted me. We can all give examples of this. The example I usually give is going from the excellent three lane highway in Tallaght where the limit is 60 km/h to a winding country road where the speed limit increases to 100 km/h. It is insane. Why would anybody respect this? I certainly do not. One will probably find a camera or a couple of gardaí there to catch one out.

Legislation should be introduced to take the setting of speed limits out of the hands of local authorities and place it at national level. The answer I am always given is that these are different jurisdictions. If we are serious let us have consistency. It is the same with road humps. Who designs these things? One would not notice some of them and if one goes over others at 10 mph one is likely to break one's axle. I crossed one on the North Quays at 15 mph and I am lucky to have a car left. Will the Minister of State and his officials make note of this and see whether we can introduce uniformity? Where the speed limit is 30 km/h it should be a requirement of those putting in road humps that motorists can travel across them at that speed. Otherwise it is dangerous and motorists do not respect them.

The Minister of State is aware of a number of tragic cases such as that of a young woman on her way to Shannon Airport to take a plane to the United States who was killed because of the negligence of the local authority, which used a completely inappropriate road surface treatment and did not place any warnings. The same situation was involved in the school bus tragedy in Trim. Local authorities do not live up to their responsibilities.

Often, I walk down O'Connell Street as I am afraid to cycle because I have been knocked off my bicycle. We should also consider how motorcycle couriers dangerously weave in and out of the traffic on O'Connell Street. On occasions, when walking home with my partner, he pointed out the paving system on O'Connell Street which is extremely dangerous. He stated repeatedly to me that an accident would occur and somebody would be killed. To create a piazza effect the distinction between the pavement and the road has been blurred. A couple of days ago a lorry mounted the pavement and a young man was seriously injured.

Drivers have responsibility and this issue is not only about speed. We have a syndrome involving young people, drink, the early hours of the morning, country roads, too many people in a car and old bangers. As legislators we also have a responsibility as do those at local authority level. I appeal to the Minister of State to consider the matters of consistency of speed limits so they will be respected and observed and I urge him to create uniformity and safety in road humps which in some cases are no use and in others are virtually a death-trap.