Sir, - Want to hear a good (but black) Irish joke? Ireland was the last country in the EU to introduce the compulsory car test and we are behind schedule in introducing a compulsory register for driving instructors - we might have one in two years' time. As for the proposed penalty point system, this is the sad history. In July 1998 the Cabinet announced the introduction of a penalty points system for repeat offenders - a year after a similar system was implemented in the UK. It may be in force here by the end of 2001 - two years behind schedule. The theory test for will also be with us in 2001, again two years behind schedule. Moreover, the law that states that provisional drivers must have a qualified driver beside them has never been enforced (there is an acceptable level of road carnage, after all). And when someone in the National Safety Council points out that this incompetent and apathetic Government attitude to road safety actually causes unnecessary deaths on the roads, the Minister for the Environment calls that accusation outrageous!
But no need to worry, Mr Dempsey. The Irish people and the Irish media accept poor, inconsistent and often dangerous road signs and road markings and we accept it when the so-called Minister for Justice allows his driver to escape the law when found speeding (what an insult to the families of all those killed and injured by speeding drivers). In summary, we have no problem with the begorrah and lackadaisical attitude by our national and local authorities to the quality of their work, or their lack of concern on these issues. We accept the end result - a rate of road deaths twice as high as that in the UK.
Leadership on this issue will require much more than what the current Government has offered to date as part of its "strategy" - which is nothing but a belated realisation that (some of) our road laws must be enforced. It will require a demand for quality work regarding all road issues, the implementation of all laws, and the speedy introduction of new legislation. Eventually, someone with this vision will come along, and we will catch up with the rest of the civilised world. Our current politicians could start down this road by looking up the words "leadership" and "government" in the dictionary and by changing their attitude to the lives and welfare of the people they are supposed to govern. The people of Ireland are literally dying for them to do so. - Yours, etc.,
Seamus Lennon, Mullanamoy, Clones, Co Monaghan.