Speech by Dr. James McDaid, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Transport

at the Opening of the Conference of the Motor Schools Association of Ireland, (MSAI)

Clare Inn Hotel, Newmarket-On-Fergus, Clare

on Sunday 8^th June 2003 at 10.30 am

I would like to thank the Motor Schools Association of Ireland for the invitation to open this conference.

As Minister for State at the Department of Transport with particular responsibility for road traffic including road haulage and driving instruction I welcome the opportunity to address you here today. Good advice and good preparation are important in driver formation not just in terms of driver skills but also in terms of behaviour and in driving matters generally. The issue of road safety is important to all of us and driving instructors play an important role in training all our drivers.

Proper driver behaviour is crucially important in improving our road safety performance. Behaviour can be influenced by the learning process and also by deterrents under the law. Before turning to driver instruction and learning, I wish to say a few words about our major deterrent initiative. That is of course the introduction last October of the penalty points system which initially applied to speeding. It is the Government's intention to ensure that road users take the most serious road safety offences seriously.  It is a matter for all road users to exercise caution and act responsibly.  Many road users do not realise the value of their driving licence until faced with the prospect of losing it.

The intended effect of penalty points is to instil greater caution and responsibility in motorists in relation to their driving; and to transfer most of the enforcement of the system from the courts to an administrative process. The introduction of penalty points means that carelessness or lack of consideration in relation to safe driving will have the potential to result in driving disqualification.  Indications from the Gardai are that, based on the same level of enforcement, the level of detections for speeding have reduced considerably.  This, taken with the fact that road deaths have reduced since the introduction of the system, indicates that the intended effect of the system seems to have been achieved.  At 3 June 2003, 138 people had lost their lives on the roads compared to 159 at the same date last year.

The rate of reduction in road deaths has slowed however.  Unfortunately, the number of road deaths during May 2003 stood at 37 compared to 20 for the same month last year. These tragedies provide a telling restatement of our vulnerability in road collisions.  If we are to re-assert the positive trends that we have experienced since November last year we must all accept both that inherent vulnerability and that it is through our own behaviour that we will maximise our own safety on the roads.

Much attention has centred around the enforcement of penalty points in recent weeks.  I can assure you that the system is being enforced and that the Gardai are processing fixed charge notices and court hearings are proceeding.  Only recently, a number of speeding cases were heard in the Dublin District Court, the majority of which resulted in conviction.

Penalty points for driving without insurance have been introduced with effect from 1 June, 2003. We are also in consultation with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Gardai for the purpose of applying the system to seat belt offences committed by drivers.

The Government's Strategy for Road Safety 1998 to 2002 identified safer driver behaviour as the principle means of ensuring gains in Irelands road safety performance. The introduction of the driver theory test in June 2001 was a significant development in the education of our learner drivers, and should increasingly be reflected over time in improved standards of driver behaviour. At the end of May 2003 some 205,000 theory tests had been conducted.

The Strategy acknowledged the importance of driver training and testing, with the qualification that these could not be expected to yield road safety benefits on the scale of measures directly targeted at speeding, alcohol and seat belt wearing which were prioritised by the Strategy.  Driver formation has in accordance with the Strategy been assisted in a number of ways, including the introduction of the driver theory test for applicants for first provisional licences, support for the voluntary Driver Instruction Register in obtaining quality certification, and support for the initiative by the Irish Motorcyclists' Action Group to establish a network of motorcycle instructors throughout the country.

Former Minister Robert Molloy announced in December 1999 proposals for improved quality control and/or regulation of driving instruction. The proposals involved introducing a test of competence of individual instructors, or exemption from this requirement where an instructor is accredited to an organisation of driving instructors recognised by the Department as meeting appropriate quality standards. As you know the design of these standards is at present being formulated by a working group comprising representatives of the Department of Transport and of driving instruction interests including the MSAI. A further meeting of the group is currently being arranged for the end of this month, and hopefully this will lead to the finalisation of the draft standard. I would like to see the standard being finalised as early as possible.

The intention had been that when the standard is finalised any organisation or body which wishes to assess instructors to that standard will have to seek accreditation with the National Accreditation Board who will have regard to the procedures and personnel which are in place to assess driving instructors. No group or body is currently approved and the question of formally approving any group or body as a register of driving instructors will not arise until proposals are implemented.

However I have reviewed these proposals and I am now considering the feasibility and potential of having one body overseeing driving instruction. Such a body would be selected through a public procurement process.  Before such a process can commence the standard which instructors must meet has to be finalised.

I can assure you that the Government is fully committed to regulation of driving instruction. The Road Traffic Act 2002 expanded the legislative basis for such regulation to provide for the implementation of the proposals I have outlined above.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you well in your work and thank you for your contribution to road safety as you pass on the skills and knowledge which you possess to our inexperienced drivers.

Ends