Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. The penalty points system was a great success in terms of road safety between 2007 and 2013, when there was a 44% reduction in road fatalities across the State, going from over 330 in 2007 to a low of 162 in 2012. That was a massive achievement, given that the Government target for that year was 100 more than the final outcome. Unfortunately, there was a rise in fatalities in 2013 and 2014. As of now, there have been 183 deaths on the roads, and the Christmas holiday period is upcoming. This highlights the importance of getting legislation right and maintaining the effectiveness of the penalty points system in legislation and in practice, as well as ensuring that motorists and pedestrians know that it is in place. It is not the failure of the idea that has led to this rise or the problem we face today. It is human error, which we must change and protect against. I have no intention of hammering anyone about the problems in the legislation which led to this. It was a mistake and should not have happened, and might have shaken the structure that we use to improve road safety. The Minister recognised it was a mistake and owned up to it and it is admirable that he sought to deal with it swiftly. If other Ministers and Departments had acted similarly, in other respects, the Government would have had a smoother time in the first half of 2014.

This legislation does deal with the issues that have arisen. Simply passing this Bill will not put an end to the matter, but it will go a long way towards resolving the problem, although it might be challenged by some people. Most of those who might feel disgruntled or hard done by in this case only do so in light of the discovery of our legislative mistake. None would have been aware of this had they not been driving in a manner which put themselves or others at risk, to a lesser or greater extent. People who held up their hands and took fines and points on their licences cannot expect to have them pulled following the passage of this Bill. That is how it should be. Road safety is too important an issue to allow anything else to happen. Penalty points have been too valuable a tool to suffer greater damage. Killer behaviour, as the Road Safety Authority, RSA, calls it, must be challenged and in Ireland we have shown a great willingness to adopt common sense policies on safety, for example, the smoking ban. People no longer accept drink-driving or other practices that put drivers, passengers, and other road users at risk. This is due to the effective use of a public awareness campaigns which have brought home the seriousness of such behaviour to the public.

It would be remiss of me not to mention resources. We have passed several Bills which have imposed new responsibilities on the Garda in respect of road safety. We have all highlighted that while we support those changes, the Garda may have been less equipped to carry out existing responsibilities and the legislation we are debating would not be as effective as we had hoped it would be. The previous head of the RSA was very clear, as I expect the new one is too, that enforcement is the key to the effectiveness of penalty points and Garda resources are very important. I implore the Minister to make sure this issue is prioritised at Cabinet level and to ensure that providing better Garda resources is a major plank of future road safety strategy. We will support this legislation. I thank the Minister for his work on this.