Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. My party broadly supports the Bill. Every Government measure and all efforts aimed at reducing the number of tragedies on our public roads should be supported as they do not belong in the domain of party political debate. To be fair to the Minister, he engaged in the Lower House with Members from all sides and showed a willingness to accept worthwhile amendments, including one very positive proposal on hit-and-run incidents which was tabled by my party's spokesperson in the Dáil, Deputy Timmy Dooley.

The Minister referred to a number of issues, of which speed was the foremost among them. The older I get, the more convinced I become that speed is the major problem on our roads. While there are many other problems on our roads, including drink and drug driving, speed is without doubt the biggest factor in road deaths in this country, north, south, east and west. It has reached the point where those of us who have younger family members travelling to Dublin after a weekend in Kerry are concerned until they receive a telephone call indicating they have reached home in Dublin safely. This is especially true of bank holiday weekends.

I have been travelling between Kerry and Dublin for some years now and I am becoming increasingly cautious on the roads. Regardless of how careful people are, however, we cannot legislate for some irresponsible person or idiot, for want of a better word, who decides to travel at 90 mph and crosses the white line, placing oncoming drivers in danger. Most Senators will get one scare on the road to Dublin every month. If one drives at speed one contributes to the possibility of an accident occurring. For this reason, anyone with a little grey matter has already decided to slow down. I hope this approach will continue to work.

We have made great strides in road safety in the past decade. The Fianna Fáil Party in government did some very good work in this regard and it was supported by the parties in opposition at that time. The penalty points system we introduced, while highly controversial, has become part of the landscape of the roads.

It has probably saved countless lives. We tightened up the regulations regarding drink driving. We were not thanked for it by many public representatives. At times, the public was very cross about it. We cannot afford to take chances with people's lives. I think the message that if one is going to have a drink, one simply does not drive is getting across to people at this stage. It has been said on many occasions that the younger generation has shown greater responsibility in this regard than some older people, who are probably accustomed to a more lax regime and think they can drink and drive away. I believe young people have to be given credit for shunning the idea of the drink driver.

We also set up the Road Safety Authority, about which I will say more in a moment. Its establishment was a big step forward in our efforts to address the problem on the roads in a significant way. I am proud to say that the Go Safe speed camera programme is operated by a company that is native to my own town of Listowel and is doing a very good job. I must say I have seen greater evidence of its vans on the roads recently, especially last weekend. The huge investment in roads infrastructure over the past ten years was probably as important as anything else in contributing to the reduction in the number of deaths on the road. Good roads make for safer driving, whereas bad roads definitely lead to accidents. The infrastructure is now outstanding in most areas, with one or two exceptions. I refer in particular to the development of the motorway network. A person can drive from Limerick to Dublin in two and a half hours without breaking the speed limit. Fifteen years ago, the same journey took up to four hours.

I would like to comment on some aspects of the Bill and the Minister's speech. The introduction of the new novice category is a positive move and will help to ensure this country's drivers are more mature and more responsible by the time they no longer need to display a letter on their cars. The requirement to display an N plate on their cars will apply to all drivers during the first two years after qualification. Drivers with N plates will face a lower penalty point disqualification threshold of six points, compared to 12 points for other qualified drivers. They will also have to record a minimum amount of accompanied driving before taking the driving test. I have one question for the Minister in this regard. I hope he will respond when he sums up. How will this actually operate? In what specific way will learner drivers be able to prove and document with authority that they have accumulated a certain amount of accompanied driving? I would be interested to learn more in this regard.

The introduction of a number of new penalty point offences is an important measure. Penalty points will also be imposed on drivers whose vehicles exceed the maximum length, width or weight. The intoxicated driving offences section of the Bill empowers members of the Garda to require people in charge of a car in a public place to undergo intoxication impairment tests. The results of such tests may be used in evidence in support of the Garda forming an opinion that the person is intoxicated. It will be an offence to fail to comply with a request to undergo this testing and a power of arrest will also be granted where there is a failure to comply. As the Minister has said, this Bill will allow for the first time a specimen of blood to be taken from an incapacitated person, subject to medical approval, following a road traffic collision involving death or injury.

I suppose the downside of this legislation is that it is somewhat clouded in controversy. I am afraid the results and figures relating to road fatalities, which have been good in recent times, have taken a downward spiral lately. Maybe the Minister will comment on that. People were quite shocked by the outburst from the chairman of the Road Safety Authority, Mr. Gay Byrne, on the occasion of the departure of Mr. Noel Brett. That was a regrettable departure because Mr. Brett did outstanding work as a public servant before moving on to other things. Mr. Byrne gave some credit to the current Minister but claimed that the Minister is being totally bossed about by his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Shatter. He also suggested that there is a problem with resourcing the programme. Mr. Byrne actually said that the Government cares as little about road safety as he does about snipe shooting.

That was an extraordinary remark from a chairman of a State board. It has certainly shaken the confidence of the public in the project. I ask the Minister to comment on Mr. Byrne. Does he agree with those statements? Can he live with somebody who has that view chairing what is essentially a board that is answerable to him? Is there a conflict between the Minister and the Minister for Justice and Equality regarding resourcing the road safety programme? I ask the Minister to comment on that item.

In respect of the amendment, the Minister was good enough to accept relating to hit-and-run incidents, up to now, the hit-and-run driver has never come under the hammer. It will now be possible under the legislation to prosecute him or her. I raised my final point on the Order of Business today. Perhaps the Minister would comment on today's reports relating to huge numbers of fines being waived by judges on condition that a person makes a donation to the poor box. A total of €2 million was collected in that exercise this year, a quarter of it from my county of Kerry. I would like to understand what this is about.