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

I thank the Senators for their contributions. When this Bill has been passed and the section commenced there will be three penalty points for three years, not two. The Senator should watch out for those speed limit signs as he drives around.

There are speed limits around the country that are not right. That is why we had the speed limit review. I have set up a high level task force involving people at senior level in all the organisations to implement the task force report and to get rid of some of the inconsistent or silly speed limits around the country.

I do not intend to commence that section of the Bill increasing from two to three penalty points until there has been significant progress on the implementation of the speed limit review. Some speed limits may seem inappropriately low but when one investigates them they are there for a reason, often because there is a concealed entrance and one might be driving too fast to see it. Sometimes they are there because of the camber of the road. It may look fine but it may be at a tilt which can be quite dangerous. I do not have any role in where the gardaí decide to place their unmarked cars. I think I am correct in saying that the revenue does not go to the Garda Síochána. It goes directly to the Exchequer. I do not see why there would be a great incentive for the gardaí to do that. The Garda Síochána loses approximately €2 million a year on the Gatso vans because the fine income does not match the cost of running them.

I welcome the spirit behind Senator Barrett’s amendment in regard to smoking. I have done a little academic research in my time but he has done much more. As we both know one will always find one paper that says one thing and another that says the opposite. One needs a body of evidence and a meta-analysis before making an evidence-based decision. The body of evidence is not strong enough in the view of the RSA to ban smoking while driving but should evidence to the contrary emerge we will reconsider that.

There are definitions of mini-roundabouts in the design and road building and the urban street manuals. I am sure that there are mini-roundabouts all over the place that are not consistent with the design standards but there are standards. It is an offence to contravene the rules on a mini-roundabout and one has to go to court. One may not be prosecuted but if one breaks the rules one must go to court. This legislation makes it a penalty point offence. We are probably closer than the Senator may think to what he is trying to do in making it a penalty point offence rather than one that results in going to court, even if on many occasions there is no prosecution.