Sir, - The National Safety Council warns of the "shameful" number of road deaths (The Irish Times, April 14th). How very true, because our statistics are almost the worst in Europe, and per capita we kill twice as many on our roads as they do in the UK. The Government Strategy for Road Safety 1998-2002 makes it very obvious why this appalling situation exists. I refer to page 18 of that document which makes it clear that driving instructors are not subject to any mandatory control or special legislation. Therefore, anybody who holds a valid driving licence can be an "instructor".
We know that there are many thousands of unqualified drivers on the road who legally drive unaccompanied, a disgrace that would not be tolerated in any other EU country. In fact, the NSC gives 400,000 as the number of "wholly inexperienced learner drivers in the State, 30 per cent of whom do not have a valid driving licence".
Surveillance is at the lowest level I have experienced yet - and I have driven extensively in Europe. That leads on to the matter of funding. It's not that the Government is short of money but its priorities are wrong. The motoring fraternity contributes almost £3 billion a year to the general Exchequer derived in excise duty on new cars, tax on fuel, driving licence money and, to cap it all, a harsh rate of VAT on every item sold thereafter. There is no shortage of money if the present Government was doing the job it was put there to do.
It is time our legislators accepted a fair share of the shame for the steadily decreasing standards of driving in this State. - Yours, etc., Douglas McCowen,
Templeville Road, Dublin 6W.