Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe they do, so clearly there is an issue there in terms of consistency. I would also have a concern that people are using it to avoid penalty points. When they get to the point where their licence is under threat, they take a chance that they will be able to tell a sob story in the courts and get away without being disqualified from driving. It is a matter about which I have great concern. The Law Reform Commission published a report on how the area could be reformed in 2005, which is some time ago. I know it is something the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, is examining and I hope he will make a decision on it quite soon.

Senator O'Neill pointed out that young people do not drink and drive and that the culture among young people is very different when it comes to drink-driving. I echo that because I believe it is absolutely correct. For the older generation there was a time when drink-driving was acceptable. Even when I was learning to drive for the first time, it was something that many people considered to be acceptable but it is absolutely not the case among younger people now which is very encouraging. However, it is not the case when it comes to speeding and young people speed a lot. They also do not have experience which really matters when it comes to driving.

It may be that young drivers do not show up much when it comes to penalty points and I do not know why that is. However, 36% of all the deaths on the roads are of people between the ages of 16 and 30. When broken down to categories of five years, the people most likely to die on the roads are in the 21 to 25 age group, of whom 27 died last year; followed by the 26 to 30 age group, of whom 25 died last year; and followed by the 16 to 20 age group, of whom 16 died last year. It is very clear that people in their 20s are twice to three times more likely to die on the roads than those in their 40s or 50s, which is why the insurance is so much higher and why we need to treat novice drivers somewhat differently. Let us bear in mind that these are novice drivers; it is not because they are young but because they are inexperienced. The two-year rule will apply to someone who starts to drive at 45 just as it would to someone who is 17 or 18. Certainly there are no grounds for an age-discrimination equality case, should anyone be considering it.

A few people have thrown around the figure suggesting that 37% of drivers stopped for penalty points offences do not have a licence. I do not believe it is correct. I do not know where it comes from and I have yet to see it authenticated. It may be that the drivers did not have their licences with them and were then required to produce the licence in a Garda station within ten days. In some cases they may be drivers with foreign licences and cannot have points applied. I would be very surprised if 37% of people on the road did not have driving licences. I find it hard to believe and have yet to see those figures authenticated.

Penalty points stay on a driver's licence for three years. It does not matter if someone goes from a learner permit to a driving licence or a person moves from being a novice driver to being a fully experienced driver; the points just stay for the three years after which they expire.

Senator Barrett spoke about some cases thrown out of court recently. I understand that the authorisation form did not specify the exact location point of the checkpoint. The authorisation forms just identify the townland or a number of townlands. It appears and the courts have interpreted that the legislation requires that the location of the checkpoint be specified. That may be wrong and it may be something we need to change in this legislation or in future legislation. However, that appears to be the law regardless of whether we like it. The legislation specifies that the checkpoint must be signed off by a member of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of inspector. The Senator may have been suggesting extending this to the rank of sergeant. I have an open mind on that and I will ask my officials to consult the Garda between now and Committee Stage to see if that is something that could or should be done, or even if the Garda wanted it to be done.

I am not sure to what extent smoking while driving is a road safety issue. Of course we know that operating a mobile phone while driving is very dangerous, and we have statistics and evidence to back that up. Other things are less clear. Perhaps smoking, listening to the radio or talking to a passenger could be distracting. It is a matter I am open to considering. However, everything we do in road safety is research and evidence-based, and we believe it is proportionate. I would like to see some evidence that smoking while driving results in collisions. If it does, I can consider it; if it does not, I do not want to make legislation just based on theories rather than evidence.

Senator Whelan spoke about Article 15 of the Constitution which provides that somebody cannot be detained while travelling - I believe he said - to the Dáil. I always thought that Senators were also included because I believe that article refers to either House. That was put into the 1937 Constitution probably for a good reason. At the time all over Europe dictators and authoritarian governments were stopping people getting to parliament or burning down the parliament in some cases. I personally believe it is probably outdated. I asked the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to at least produce some guidelines. I certainly cannot understand how anyone could invoke such a privilege if the Dáil or Seanad was not even in session or if the Member were leaving the House. It would be one thing to miss a vote, particularly a vote on a money Bill on which the Government might fall, but I would have liked it to take up the challenge of coming up with guidelines we, as Members, could follow. Unfortunately it did not and so perhaps the Convention on the Constitution is the right vehicle for that to be reconsidered as the Senator suggests.

Senator Quinn spoke about level crossings, a matter about which I know a considerable amount given that there are five in my constituency, including one beside my house. They are a real pain. I have looked at the issue frequently because I am a victim of them in many ways. The difficulty relates to sight lines and stopping distances. It takes a long time to stop a heavy train - much longer than for a Luas tram for example. I have investigated in my constituency whether the time the barriers are down might be reduced, but it just cannot be done unfortunately.