New road traffic act means nothing without extra Gardaí to enforce it
Sinn Féin Dublin Mid West representative Joanne Spain has criticised the Government's
decision to introduce a new road traffic act which gives Gardaí extensive
powers to deal with drink-driving and mobile phone use, without increasing
the number of Gardaí, in tandem, to enforce the act.
Spain
said:
"The number of people dying on our roads from bad driving
has increased at a frightening rate in the last few years, despite the
introduction of the penalty points system.
"My own constituency
of Dublin Mid West is surrounded by three of the busiest roads in the
country - the M50, the N4 and the N7. I use these roads every day and
regularly see people driving like lunatics, endangering themselves and
everyone else around them. People using mobile phones while driving is a pet
hate of any responsible person as we are all aware that the act limits your
ability to drive carefully. And there is absolutely no excuse for
people drinking and driving.
"With that in mind, I welcome the
decision to increase Garda powers to deal with these infringements of the
law. However, I fail to see how the small number of Gardaí charged with
policing our roads can benefit from new laws while they remain overstretched
to such a degree.
"Presently there are roughly 680 personnel in
the traffic corps across the state. In a state with over four million
inhabitants, a largepercentage of which drive, that number is inadequate. We
can demand that people drive responsibly, but we still need a proper
policing service on our roads to ensure that those who don't are caught
before it is too late.
"It has become the habit of this
Government to introduce legislation which effectively produces nothing on
the ground. Time will tell if this new road traffic act will be able to
produce results by itself, without the help of added gardaí to actually make
it work."
ENDS