Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming to the House to set out this important Bill of his. I am generally supportive of the content of the Bill. We will need to tease out one or two issues and I will flag them to the Minister rather than tease them out now. This can be done later on in the process.

I also want to thank the Oireachtas Library and Research Service which has done quite an extensive review of and commentary on the Minister’s Bill, which is very helpful. I would urge everyone who has not had a chance yet to have a look at it. One of the great things about the Oireachtas Library and Research Service is that it gives us independent analysis and pulls the bits together, but it also gives a commentary on the legislation. Some of the comments are particularly interesting and the Minister’s own Department might take the time to have a look at this material, if it has not already had that opportunity.

I will focus on three issues. First, I welcome the idea, where we know and the Minister has stated this before, that the road traffic offences account for most criminal cases now in the District Court and that they are clogging them up. That is crazy. We have a situation in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area, which I am familiar with and is where I live, that in the Dún Laoghaire District Court, the judge has to make time for these. The court is now bringing in all of the parking attendants and they are sworn in together. A certain judge is of particular interest there because she first asks people that if they accept that they have responsibility for this offence they can pay their additional fine because she does not want to put these defendants into the box, does not want to cross-examine, does not want them to be wasting her time or for her to be wasting their time. That is pragmatism and it does not happen in all District Court locations. We are seeing courts being clogged up, particularly around the country.

The Minister’s proposal under this Bill is to have three opportunities to pay a fixed charge notice, if I am correct. One is that it is paid within 28-days of the issue of the notice. With the second, one pays the charge plus an additional 50% within a further 28-days. Third, one pays the charge plus a further 100% when issued with a summons to court. This should then result in fewer cases being prosecuted in the court as the road traffic offences account for most offences. That is progressive, pragmatic and makes complete sense.

Another issue I raised before is the issue of disabled parking bays. I believe I have been told before that this can be done in primary legislation. We need to send a very clear message, however, because all over Dublin city and county, and I am sure all over the country, we have people who are parking in these designated disability bays. Indeed An Garda Síochána did a major sting in Dublin about two years ago which was featured in a special RTÉ programme of investigation. We heard that there were very well-to-do people driving in and using disability badges who were not at all disabled. An Garda put a considerable amount of resources into this and identified a number of these bays in this sting. It approached the people at the end of the week, and said that it had noted that the person's car was parked there at a particular place.

If we are committed to people with disabilities, and I know that the Minister is, and if we have clearly designated these spaces as disability parking bays, I would go as far as to say that there should be penalty points for offenders in such instances. I know that we have had a discussion on this in the past, and that the Minister or his officials are somewhat reluctant to consider this, but we need to send a very strong message out. We talk about disabilities, being advocates for people with disabilities, and we talk about supporting and providing different modes of transport for different sets of circumstances. We need to look at how we can ensure that these places are kept for the many people who have these designated cars and are genuinely disabled. We must then have a major penalty for people who abuse disability bays because these bays are very important.

Perhaps this can be done in the regulations, but I would like to see a stronger message than that and I would ask the Minister to look at that.

I am somewhat concerned and am interested in these powered personal transporters, PPTs, that the Minister talked about and the PPT class. It might be helpful that a briefing note might be provided to us on the PPT class. I do not know much about it but I know of it. There is not a day passes but people stop me to ask what these crazy people are doing driving up and down in our cycleways, on our footpaths, in our parks, and everywhere.The thing has gone crazy. We have to be always mindful of public safety in the public realm and on our transport corridors. I have got off buses in quality bus corridors and have been banged into by these guys who hop up from the roads to the footpaths and through parks. It is simply not good enough. I would like to hear from the Minister or tease it out with him at some stage. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, has a huge remit. This is about public health and safety, not about loonies spinning around the place going up and down and around and not necessarily going anywhere. I see them in public car parks racing around the place. In the case of anyone on the road with some sort of vehicle that has an engine or is propelled in some way, there must be a licensing system. It is not a free-for-all and citizens have responsibilities. More importantly, and I say this respectfully, as someone responsible for transport, the Minister needs to send out a message that we are not going to permit anybody with a motorised two-wheeler, three-wheeler, four-wheeler or whatever it is, out and about with no insurance. Who is paying? It is public liability and local authorities are being stung all the time with claims. Irish mutual bodies are picking up the tab on insurance. Who is paying? Who is responsible for the insurance for the next guy who bangs into the side of someone's car in one of these vehicles or e-scooters? What engagement has the Minister had with An Garda Síochána and its traffic division, the Road Safety Authority and other bodies? I seek his assurance in this regard because I will not be in a position to support this particular aspect of the Bill if the Minister or anyone else is suggesting these people can go along our roads without insurance. While I am open to correction from the Minister, no way should we tolerate it. I accept it is a form of transport. I respect that and the point the Minister has made about it being a way of getting from A to B. It is a relatively cheap one, once you buy your wheels or your vehicle but we must face up to the fact that there are public liability and insurance issues.

Those are the three issues. Can the Minister provide more detail about the PPT and the class he envisages? Can he share with Members his consultation with the RSA regarding this particular matter? Will he tell us what engagement he or his Department has had with An Garda Síochána? It would be helpful.

Finally, there has to be a severe penalty for people who abuse our designated disability bays and deny people with disabilities the opportunity to park in a safe and designated space that has been provided.