I am delighted to support the motion. I support the general concept of car testing. Too many people lose their lives annually on Irish roads. Every effort should be made to make road safety a priority in all our lives. Regular car testing is but a small part of the programme to ensure we are safe on the roads. A comprehensive road safety programme should comprise a wide range of measures, including greater emphasis on seat belt wearing, a year round clampdown on drink-driving and, most importantly, measures to end speeding on our roads.
The last annual report of the National Safety Council shows that 82% of road fatalities were the result of speeding. That statistic alone points to the fact that it is not the quality of cars on our roads that causes the majority of accidents but the way we use our cars. Over the past two years the Government indicated it intends to introduce penalty points for dangerous driving but as of yet efforts have not been made to allow for the implementation of such legislation. A penalty points system would go some way towards reducing the incidence of road accidents and dangerous driving which has reached a frightening level. Under such a system an errant driver is deducted points for each minor breach of the law. Points are deducted for such offences as not wearing a seat belt, breaches of traffic signals and driving without caution. Will the Minister indicate when the Government intends to introduce legislation on penalty points?
The national car test will ensure there will be better cars on our roads but it will also place major financial pressures on those who cannot afford to buy a new car every four or five years. It is generally the least well off in our society who drive older cars and among that group are the elderly. Their old car is often their lifeline to the outside world. For them their car is of paramount importance in getting to the shop, the post office, the doctor, the hospital and to visit a relative or a neighbour. Those people are not in the business of speeding and putting lives at risk and they should not be put in a position where they must fork out money for car testing when they cannot afford it.
I would not make a case for free car testing for the elderly if we had a decent public transport system, particularly in rural areas. That would ensure the elderly had constant access to services, but we all know the reality. Public transport services in rural Ireland are appalling and people are forced to find alternative transport. The inadequate public transport system is only in the ha'penny place when it is set against the state of some of the roads in rural areas. In my constituency of Kerry South the condition of some of the roads has caused premature depreciation of cars; cars are old in six months. If the Minister does not take my word for it, I invite him to speak to road users in the Dingle area who were forced to storm our county council meeting last Monday because they can no longer tolerate the outrageous conditions of the roads there. The Minister was in the constituency last week and was taken around by the officials and shown the condition of the roads. I hope he will not let the people of Kerry South down. It would be very unfair if the elderly had to pay for their car test.
The introduction of the car test should have been accompanied by a package of measures that would have ensured better driving standards and better driving conditions. In addition, it should have recognised the financial burden it imposes on the elderly in particular. Since the car test was introduced I am aware of cases where garages cannot sell perfectly good cars until the due date of the test. For example, if a car was brought in by a garage owner today and the tax on it is not due until next July, he must hold on to that car until next July when it will be certified. Perfectly good cars are now parked in garages and it is often the people who are on a low income who can only afford a second-hand car who are affected by this. I ask the Minister to address this problem by putting in place a fast-tracking system to ensure garages are not forced to hold such cars.
The Government's amendment to the motion does not address the financial burden that has been imposed on those who can least afford it. That is the message in this motion. While the amendment underlines the Government's commitment to introduce a more equitable driving licence fee for persons over the age of 70, there is no time scale for its introduction. When does the Minister intend to implement this measure?
I call on local authorities to introduce a notification procedure to inform people of the due date for the renewal of their driving licences. Such a notification procedure exists for car tax and insurance and it should be a simple matter to extend it to driving licences. Licences are issued generally for five years or ten years and given that time span it is easy for people to forget to resubmit their applications for renewal on time. Where motorists forget to do that, they have to resit their driving test and given the current waiting list for the driving test, they would have to wait a long time to resit their test.
I would like to address the impact motor vehicles have on our environment. Motor cars are a necessity in modern day life, particularly where there is not access to any means of public transport, which, in effect, is the situation outside of Dublin. I accept the emissions they produce contribute to environmental damage, but I do not accept that the national car test will reduce this damaging effect. The motor vehicle manufacturing industry must take greater responsibility in ensuring the cars they produce cause minimum damage to our environment.
More new cars on our roads are not necessarily better for the environment because for every new car that is put on the road, an old one must be disposed of. As of yet, we do not have any appropriate recycling facilities to deal with used cars and the Government must take action on this, particularly in view of the national car test scheme. I ask the Minister to address this matter immediately, otherwise our roadsides will be strewn with old cars. I support the motion.