Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome the legislation and the opportunity to address such a critical issue. Many people in all our communities are bereaved and too many crosses dot the roadside across the State because of road deaths. As Senator Noone mentioned, one positive aspect of the previous Government's record over the past ten to 15 years is that there was success in reducing the number of road fatalities. This was done through a mix of public awareness, education and adjustments to enforcement and licensing.

The number of road deaths has fallen dramatically as a result of these steps, which forced people to realise the potential danger of car travel and the responsibility of all people to keep safe and be considerate of the safety of others. Road safety advertisements are vivid and graphic but they have caused people to rethink actions and attitudes to driving, taking in drink-driving, driving while on a phone call or the recent phenomenon of driving while texting on a phone. Those adverts have brought about much awareness despite being very graphic.

I wholeheartedly welcome this legislation as it will further promote road safety. Taken with the recent proposals by a Minister in the North, Mr. Alex Attwood, there will be harmonised limits across the island. As Senator Barrett has already mentioned, this is critical for communities along the Border. There is scope for the Minister to work through the North-South Ministerial Council to develop harmonised road safety policy and enforcement across the island to ensure the safety of pedestrians and motorists both North and South. I encourage the Minister to continue with this work, especially with regard to the issues already highlighted by Senator Barrett.

In welcoming the legislation I am mindful that early figures for 2011 showed a slight spike in deaths, and I hope this will not become a trend. As has been mentioned by earlier speakers, I am concerned about a possible disconnection between this legislation to enhance road safety and other Government policies and actions arising from budget cuts. I am concerned that planned cuts to public services will have a direct impact on front-line services. There will be an effect on the Garda budget, for example, and it would be wrong for budget cuts to have an impact on the ability of gardaí to enforce the legislation we are debating. It would also be wrong for budget cuts to have an impact on the ability of the Garda to reduce the number of intoxicated and dangerous drivers on our roads and remove unsafe vehicles. It would be wrong for such cuts to affect the ability of emergency services to respond to accidents and the ability of accident and emergency units to deal with major road traffic trauma. There is a possibility that the good work of this Bill could be undone by spending cuts.

We must be clear that drink-driving is a major issue which impairs drivers. Much work has been done to discourage people from drink-driving but additional measures must be explored, such as providing public service vehicle licences to service isolated rural areas in particular. Such measures have already been mentioned. There should be other options for rural areas which do not have public transport, and which have already faced cuts to the rural transport programme.

Drink driving is one factor in accidents and road traffic deaths but there are other factors that need to be addressed. I take this opportunity to highlight briefly an issue expressed to me about road traffic accidents and emergency responses. When the emergency response gets a call, the ambulance has to go to the scene first and if the fire brigade is required, it will be sent out. If this practice continues whereby the ambulance has to be on the scene first and the call for the fire brigade cannot go out until after it has attended the scene, there will be problems if a car goes on fire as the fire brigade will not be on hand as a first response to deal with the fire. At least half a dozen times in one small area of Cavan the ambulance was helpless until the fire brigade arrived. We do not want it to be too late and do not want to add to the crosses dotted along the roadside. People ask why it takes so long for the fire brigade to get to the scene.

In conjunction with whatever other areas he needs to examine, I ask the Minister to consider an automatic phone-out of the fire service with the ambulance to all road traffic accidents because if the fire brigade arrives first, it can cut out victims and make preparations for the ambulance staff before they arrive. All fire brigades have first responders to administer treatment when they get to the scene. If the need arises, some members of the fire brigade could be trained up to paramedic level. My party and I support the measures in the Bill to ensure continued safety on our roads with the objective of continuing to lower the number of road deaths. We cannot afford to cut the front-line services or driver testing services. The Garda needs to be adequately funded to deal with the problem, including the provision of the new breath-testing equipment. We cannot undo the good work of this legislation by underfunding other vital aspects of road safety. I ask the Minister to consider those points.