After a delay of nearly three years, the Government has finally published details of legislation designed to reduce the incidence of death and injury on our roads. But, on the basis of past performances, it could take another year before its provisions are actually put into operation. Even allowing for the difficulties involved, it is a dismal record and one that has generated considerable public criticism.
Both the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, and Minister of State, Mr Bobby Molloy, made much of the fact that the number of road deaths has fallen since 1997, in spite of a rapid growth in road traffic. That, certainly, is an achievement. But it ignores the reality that the level of road fatalities here is still almost double that occurring in Britain. Recent statistics have also shown a worrying growth in the number of motorists found guilty of drunk driving. The percentage of cars and commercial vehicles exceeding speed limits is now more than 50 per cent. And the same high incidence of law-breaking exists in relation to the wearing of seat belts. The Road Traffic Bill may go some distance towards changing that situation. Fines for motoring offences will be greatly increased. But the proposal to introduce a penalty points system, linked to the number of minor motoring offences committed, is likely to have the greatest impact. In that regard, on-the-spot fines will be replaced by fixed charge penalties that will carry with them penalty points for specified offences. Should the motorist opt for a court hearing and lose the case, the number of penalty points attracted would double, or even treble. Under the proposed system, a motorist who challenged three speeding fines in the courts and lost over a three-year period would forfeit his driving licence for six months. Alternatively, it would take six, uncontested, fixed charge penalties for speeding over the same period to cause the loss of a licence. Offences such as drunk driving, which already attract automatic disqualification upon conviction, will not fall within the penalty points system.
The decision by the Government not to introduce random breath testing for alcohol must be regarded as a failure of political nerve, given the very high incidence of alcohol-related fatal accidents. Instead, the Government has chosen minimal change by extending the powers of the Garda to breath test drivers where they have already been involved in a road accident or in a breach of road traffic law. Last year, of the 10,000 drivers breath-tested by the Garda, 93 per cent were found to be over the legal limit, while 63 per cent had consumed double the permissible amount of alcohol. And the legal blood/alcohol limit here is already very much higher than in the rest of Europe. The principal measures proposed in the legislation will not take effect until computerised systems being prepared and upgraded by the Department of Justice and the Department of the Environment and Local Government are fully effective. The expectation is that the new systems will be in operation by the end of this year. In spite of such delays, the measures proposed must be welcomed. Very slow, but steady progress is being made in implementing a Road Safety Strategy. A vehicle safety testing system in now in operation. The waiting time for driving tests is finally being reduced. And, from the end of this year, applicants for provisional driving licences will have to pass a theory test. All of these measures will make our roads safer. But more needs to be done, especially in relation to drunk driving.