Statement by Deputy Tommy Broughan Independent - Dublin Bay North Tuesday, 20 October 2015 BROUGHAN AND PARC WELCOME NEWS OF ROAD SAFETY LAWS REVIEW

Deputy Tommy Broughan and Ms Susan Gray of PARC Road Safety group have today welcomed news from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport that our complex Road Safety legislation is to be consolidated following this week’s revelation of the worryingly low conviction rates for drink driving cases. Earlier this week, it was reported that of the 20,000 plus drink-driving cases before Courts nationally between January 2013 and May 2015 just 8,391 were convicted. A much smaller number of these convictions then had their driving licence numbers recorded.

Deputy Broughan has long been a supporter of strengthening our road safety laws and has consistently challenged Government and relevant Ministers on deficiencies and loopholes discovered through Parliamentary Questions and legal challenges in our Courts. Deputy Broughan has worked with and supported Susan Gray in her work to improve road safety and in highlighting many of the loopholes in our flawed penalty points system.

Susan Gray of PARC said “We’re happy to hear that the Minister intends to finally consolidate our road safety legislation. We have been calling for this for years. It should not be up to a volunteer group of people personally affected by road traffic collisions to chase the Courts service and the Government on this issue. But we will not give up. We’ll continue to attend Courts and liaise with the Road Safety Authority (RSA), the Gardaí and the Department to ask these questions.”

Deputy Broughan said “I echo Susan’s sentiments that it is welcome news that our road safety legislation will be consolidated. Of course, we have been calling for this very thing for many years. I have today asked the Minister to confirm when this piece of work will begin and the estimated completion time as it cannot be put on the long-finger. Drink-driving and dangerous driving are very serious offences and the perpetrators of such crimes must be held accountable. 126 people have died on our roads so far this year – Ministers Donohue, Fitzgerald and the Courts Services need to sit down and examine how many of these tragic deaths could have been avoided and why.
The onus should not be on people avoiding conviction and prosecution but on making our roads safer and the legislation to enable this watertight”.
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ENDS For more information contact Tommy Broughan at (01) 618 3557