Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 150: To ask the Minister for Transport if he has satisfied himself with the level of public awareness of all of the penalty points categories; the measures that have been taken to provide public information; the reason a new Rules of the Road booklet has to be published; and the progress of same. [16228/06]

Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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Question 317: To ask the Minister for Transport when the long overdue revised Rules of the Road booklet will be published; the reason for the prolonged delays in publishing; the further reason previous promises of publishing a revised text by Autumn have not been honoured; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15982/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 150 and 317 together.

I am satisfied that an intensive public awareness campaign has been undertaken in relation to the penalty point system. The National Safety Council (NSC), as the agency mandated with responsibility for road safety education and information, operates a dedicated penalty point website www.penaltypoints.ie. This website has recently been redesigned/updated in the context of the extension of the penalty point system.

In addition, the National Safety Council ran a public education/awareness campaign about the new penalty points offences, which took place from the end of March in the lead up to the 3 April 2006 date for the extension of the penalty points system. The campaign included newspaper advertisements outlining the details of the new offences. Furthermore, the Council are continuing to operate the penalty point advertising campaign "Get the Point, Not the Points" on television and radio, in order to promote awareness amongst road users of the penalty point system.

My Department is now completing its work on the revision of the Rules of the Road booklet. As it is several years since the Booklet was up-dated there has been a very considerable amount of work involved in that many significant changes in the overall area of road traffic law have to be reflected in the revised booklet.

This work is now substantially complete and it is intended to place the revised draft Rules of the Road on the Department's website by the end of this month. In the interim, my officials are checking with the new Road Safety Authority that they are content with the scope of the new draft document. A short opportunity for comments on the revised draft Rules of the Road from the public will then be provided and the new booklet will be finalised and published this Summer.

It is intended that the booklet will be made available for sale. The new booklet will also be made available on-line and this will ensure that in future the booklet will provide up-to-date information on an ongoing basis.