Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In 2010, our national legislation on drink driving was overhauled. By and large, this served us well. In particular, the 2010 legislation reduced the legal alcohol limit for drivers from 80 mg to 50 mg per 100 ml of blood. In light of the international evidence on the effects of low levels of alcohol - evidence which has only increased since 2010 - this was a very sensible change. Unfortunately, there was a very unacceptable compromise made back in 2010. It was meant to be a matter of principle that all instances of drink driving would lead to a disqualification. The 2010 legislation however allowed that people in the new lower bracket of 50 mg to 80 mg of alcohol could in some circumstances receive penalty points rather than a disqualification. This was done to appease some people who were opposed even to the lowering of the limit. This was wrong. It was wrong to compromise the principle. It was wrong to allow people who had driven while over the limit to receive no disqualification and be able to drive away with a handful of penalty points. Finally, it sent very much the wrong message. It suggested that "a little drink driving" was no great harm.

I believe that we have to rectify this mistake. What I am proposing is to replace the three penalty points which people in this situation currently get with a three month disqualification. Some people say this is harsh. I say that the consequences of serious behaviour must be serious. There is a further reason for doing this; hardly anyone goes from being a sober driver to being three or four times over the limit in one leap.If we do not apply serious consequences to drink-driving when the alcohol levels are low, we increase the chance that people's behaviour will escalate and that they will eventually drive with far higher amounts of alcohol in their systems. We can have a great effect on the more dangerous behaviour by nipping it in the bud. We are not talking about small numbers. Between 2012 and 2016, 3,003 fixed penalty notices were issued to drivers in the 50 mg to 80 mg bracket. In 2017, the trend continued, with April 2017 showing the highest number of arrests for drink-driving of any month in five years. We need to reverse this trend and ensuring that all drink-driving merits a disqualification will help to do this.

The second matter addressed in this Bill is driving by unaccompanied learners. While this was not addressed in the original Bill, as published and introduced in the Dáil, I made clear that it was always my intention to address it and I introduced amendments to the Bill as it passed through the Dáil to deal with this dangerous behaviour. Learner drivers are required by law to have a qualified accompanying driver with them. All too many learners ignore this legal requirement. This cannot be acceptable. Driving is not a right; it is a responsibility. If someone wants to be licensed to drive on our roads, he or she must go through the learning process and pass a test to prove that he or she can safely be allowed to drive alone on our roads. This is in the interests of the entire road-using public, including the learner.

The consequences of learners driving unaccompanied were exemplified by the tragic case of Geraldine and Louise Clancy, a mother and daughter killed when their car was hit by a vehicle driven by an unaccompanied learner in December 2015. This appalling incident, like so many needless tragedies on our roads, should never have happened. It was in light of this that the Oireachtas decided, in passing the Road Traffic Act 2016, to create a new offence for the owner of a vehicle used by an unaccompanied learner. The Clancy family drew attention to the fact that the law currently applies no responsibility to the owner of a vehicle who allows an unaccompanied learner to take it out on the road. This cannot be right. If it is illegal for a learner to drive unaccompanied, the person who provides the vehicle is facilitating illegal activity. The Oireachtas therefore decided that in cases in which a learner drives unaccompanied, the owner of the vehicle, if it is someone other than the learner, must be held accountable.

The amendment inserted into the 2016 Act was an Opposition amendment which I supported, but I made clear at the time that I would have to take legal advice before commencing it. I undertook to amend it if necessary before commencement. Subsequent legal advice indicated a number of flaws in the 2016 provision. I therefore decided to repeal and replace the provision to give effect to the policy intention behind it. The key changes which I am making to the 2016 provision are recasting of the provision to reflect more appropriate legal language; extension of the provision to cover cases in which a driver is unlicensed as well as in which the driver is an unaccompanied learner; changing of the penalty in the interests of proportionality; and extension of Garda powers of detention of vehicles to cover cases in which the driver is an unaccompanied learner. I will explain each of these briefly.

The first point is self-explanatory. We all know that legal language is not the same as everyday language, and sometimes a provision which may seem clear in lay terms needs to be refined to ensure the intended effect in law.

On the second point, making it an offence for an owner to let an unaccompanied learner drive his or her vehicle without making it an offence to let an unlicensed person drive the same vehicle would create an anomaly. I ask the House to imagine a scenario in which a person was to be charged for letting an unaccompanied learner drive a car that person owned and the person offered the defence that the driver was not a learner but entirely unlicensed.

The third change concerns the penalty. In 2016, the penalty proposed for the owner of a vehicle driven by an unaccompanied learner was a fine of a maximum of €2,000 and-or a term of imprisonment of up to six months. The law must be proportionate. In this case, the primary offence is committed by the learner who drives unaccompanied, and the owner of the vehicle is a facilitator. We cannot make the owner's penalty higher than that for the driver. An unaccompanied learner faces the general penalty under the Road Traffic Acts. This is a fine of up to €1,000 for a first offence, up to €2,000 for a second or subsequent offence, and up to €2,000 and-or up to three months in prison for a third or subsequent offence within a three-month period. The 2016 provision meant that the owner would face a more severe penalty than the unaccompanied learner. Following legal advice on what would be proportionate, in light of the penalty for the learner and the wider scale of penalties for road traffic offences, I have decided that a class D fine, which is a fine of up to a maximum of €1,000, would be the most appropriate penalty in this case.

Finally, I also propose to amend section 41 of the Road Traffic Act 1994, which empowers gardaí to detain a vehicle in a range of circumstances in order that they can detain a vehicle where the driver is an unaccompanied learner. The vehicle will be taken to a pound and the owner can then retrieve it on payment of a charge for the cost of transporting and storing the vehicle.

Some critics have talked about the difficulties which might be caused if we took firm action against learners driving unaccompanied. I make no apology for taking firm action to deter behaviour which is illegal, and which is illegal because it is dangerous. I would much prefer if people obeyed the law and acted safely and responsibly. If they will not do so, we must deter them.

I am also taking the opportunity to make a few small technical corrections to existing legislation. There are cross-references to section 11(5) of the Road Traffic Act 2010 in sections 13A and 13B of that Act. Due to previous changes to section 11, these references should be to subsection (6) and I am correcting them in this Bill. Section 78A of the Road Traffic Act 1961 lists information to be provided by motor insurers to gardaí and to me as Minister. One piece of information concerned is referred to as the "licence number". This should be the driver number and the Bill will correct that. The distinction here is that a licence number changes each time a licence is renewed, whereas a driver number remains the same over a person's driving career.

What we need, ultimately, is a culture change on drink-driving and unaccompanied learner driving. It would be better if we did not need to deter these behaviours and if we could rely on people to behave responsibly. In time, I hope more and more people will do so. However, we can help to bring about that culture change by ensuring that seriously dangerous behaviour, such as getting behind the wheel while over the limit or while unaccompanied and on a learner permit, leads to serious consequences.

I thank the House once again for the opportunity to present this Bill. In particular, I thank Senators for taking the Bill so soon after it came through the Dáil. The behaviours it addresses - drink-driving and learners driving unaccompanied - are dangerous and already illegal. We need to take measures to clamp down on these activities and we will save lives in doing so. I therefore urge the House to support the Bill and ensure its speedy passage in order that we can move to enact its provisions as soon as possible.