Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for coming to the House. I appreciate that the issue I am raising is not directly under his remit but I would be grateful for his assistance on it within his Department. The problem of abandoned vehicles has the potential to affect people living on every housing estate, back road and boreen. It has an impact in every part of the country. Vehicles lying idle on our roads are not just a safety hazard; they are rightly recognised as an environmental and financial scourge. There is a cost not just to the pockets of the State and the individuals concerned but also for the planet.

Abandoned vehicles are causing no end of issues in my neck of the woods, and not just because they are an eyesore. In one instance, there is a health and safety hazard. A gentleman called Paddy, whom I have come to know well, uses a wheelchair and cannot get access to the beach. This is not a new issue. We have been talking about it for years. Looking at the Statute Book, legislation was passed donkey's years ago, in the 1980s, when I was only a child, which attempted to deal with this issue. I refer to the Road Traffic (Removal, Storage and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations 1983.It is on the Statute Book, but it is nobody’s responsibility. It is falling between a number of stools.

I am not just talking about how long it takes to get rid of an abandoned car, and it takes an awful lot longer than it should or than anybody would like it to. I am talking about the co-operation between the relevant authorities, which, in my experience in the past couple of months, does not seem to happen. I will provide an example. It was recently reported to my office that a car was abandoned on the street in Skerries, in Fingal County Council’s remit. Anybody who knows Skerries knows that it is a beautiful little town. It is full of narrow streets and laneways. Some of them lead down to the beach. It is a gorgeous little town. On this particular street, the car was becoming a hazard for everybody on the street, but particularly for one gentleman, Paddy, because it was impeding his access to the waterfront walkway that he normally enjoys every single day. That is the safety hazard part.

Another incident was reported to the office recently. It involved a car sitting on the riverbank in a secluded area of the Ward River Valley Regional Park. It had been hit by a tree and was completely destroyed. It was pointed out by the gentleman who discovered it that the car was not just full of harmful toxins that were now seeping into the river basin, it was really an environmental pit.

The cost of scrapping a car is significant. Before I get to that, however, I want to talk about the key point here. When people or politicians see an abandoned car, in many cases we report the matter to our local authority. My local authority is Fingal County Council. I reported both of these matters to Fingal County Council and was informed that it is not responsible because the number plates are still on the cars. I was directed to An Garda Síochána. I was informed by An Garda Síochána that responsibility lies with the environmental section of Fingal County Council. I get the impression, and I do not say this lightly, that what we are being told is that if the cars did not have number plates, somebody somewhere would be able to act, which is nearly incentivising me to go and take the bloody number plates off the cars so that I can get somebody to act. It should not be that way. There is no process between our local authorities and An Garda Síochána. To be honest – I am not trying to be smart – that is not good enough. I know both organisations are incredibly busy.

We need a process and direction from the Department. Perhaps it could be a Venn diagram approach whereby there would be an overlap and shared responsibility. They should make sure that when something is reported, they report it directly to the owner and give the owner a specific amount of time with penalties attached to it to remove the car or make it safe. If the owner does not do that, the State should to take it into account to remove the car and the environmental impact it is causing, the safety issues, in most cases, and just the plain old pain in the butt that particularly housing estates experience by seeing these.

I put details of this matter up on Facebook yesterday and somebody pointed me to the national car test centre just off the M50. I went to the site, and there are cars upon cars. I would say there are about 40 abandon cars. Yet, it is nobody’s responsibility. I ask the Minister of State to help me make it somebody’s responsibility by encouraging joined-up thinking on the part of An Garda Síochána and our local authorities.