Last evening I appealed to the Minister for Local Government to maintain the maximum possible impetus, in present financial circumstances, in the drive for house reconstruction and grants for repairs to rural properties. While one is inclined to lay a lot of blame at Ministerial feet, it is not always fundamentally the fault of the Minister and it has been generally accepted by the people that if the Minister were frank about the difficulties he has run into because of present circumstances of lack of finance, there would now be more healthy co-operation between those engaged in the housing drive and more concentration on the priority needs of the Department.
I shall digress from housing needs and the lack of money in that sphere to deal with other facets of the Department of Local Government and say in a very blunt and deliberate way that there is a growing feeling that the administration of that Department is becoming a stultifying and a seriously malignant influence on the country generally. We have evidence of the ever-increasing anxiety of Departments to interfere down to the very fundamental liberties of the individual. There is growing concern about the general administration of this Department and I shall deal with it as I develop my argument.
There are very sharp tentacles of bureaucracy probing further and further into wider fields of endeavour, not only in the local authority sphere but down to the individual when it comes to the operation not only of town planning but of various other types of activity for which the Department are responsible. Apart from the unrest that has been created by the political manoeuvring of the Government Party in postponing the local elections and denying the people the right, limited though it is, to give expression to their opinions, there is growing unrest in the country at the complete nonchalance with which the rating problem has been allowed to escalate into the tremendous penal hardship it now has become.
There is only scepticism and cynicism in relation to the bogus promises made that there would be a transfer to the Exchequer of charges now impinging on local authorities in their rates estimates. I have a feeling that there is some political significance in many of the delays for which the Department are responsible. One hates to feel that we are reaching the stage in Irish politics where administrative capacity is being used to check and thwart individual effort for purposes that may not be worthy and which may have the twisted tinge of political patronage.
We must face the realities of the situation that the public mind will have to be disabused of this. It can be done only by a tremendous change in the system of administration and by a frank, factual and deliberate answer by the Department showing the reasons and the justifications for delays. It has been said, whether true or false, that through the channels of subscription to a political Party one can obviate difficulties that arise. That would be a very bad and unhealthy atmosphere to get into the administration. I am not saying it is true: I sincerely hope it is not. However, if that kind of statement and suggestion is becoming prevalent, then it is the duty of the Minister with the assistance of his Department, to give cogent evidence that it is not true and dispel, if they can, the queer atmosphere that has been created and the rising belief that to get your normal need of justice in this country, you must become not only a sycophant to government but a substantial subscriber.
There is a good deal of complaint about the manner in which driving tests are being carried out. I know it is very hard to get uniformity but, again, even into the simple matter of a driving licence is coming the question of whom you know, not what you know about the job. I was amused last night when I heard Deputy Burke talking about keeping his eye on people. I was tempted to ask him, if one of the people whom he had eyed disfavourably came and told him, he was a strong supporter and a good subscriber to the Party, whether his jaundiced tears would not dry rather quickly and the suggested witch-hunt be suspended.
As I say, even the simple matter of passing a driving test or arranging it is becoming a question of politics. As far as I am concerned, it is the capacity of the person to drive which must justify passing or failing a driving test. While it is impossible to get a rigid standard, the question of the type of tester should be examined. I cannot understand why a very wide range of people have not been included in the scope of testers. I cannot understand why there cannot be a more reasonable time in which people can be tested. Some people, apparently, can manoeuvre them quickly; other people seem to suffer from indeterminate delays as to when they will be tested. However, there is one thing certain in regard to licences, the sooner people can be tested and, where necessary, apprised of the fact that they are not likely to become successful drivers, the better. We are running rapidly into a very serious road safety problem and I am completely behind any effort that will serve to decrease the shocking toll of accidents we are experiencing on the roads.
Most of us by now have experience of road traffic conditions in more countries than one. The thing that gives me tremendous cause for unrest is that, despite the fact that our roads are not in a high bracket from the point of view of traffic density we seem to be in a very high bracket from the point of view of accidents. Compared with American highways, and English and continental main roads, our main roads are comparatively free of traffic, and still we have an extraordinary incidence of accidents, and, as somebody correctly said last night, accidents in circumstances of wide open main roads with tremendous visibility both ways.
There has been a great deal of condemnation over the years of the person who drives and drinks. Undoubtedly, that is a source of danger, but is it a substantial factor in many of the road accidents we experience? Are we inclined to heap too big a proportion of the blame on a very limited section? Have we ever tackled the problem that most of us know to be a very serious cause of accidents, that is the problem of the inept, ambling driver? The slow driver can be a greater menace on the road than the very fast driver, particularly the slow driver who refuses to take his correct position on the road.
If we are to get the co-operation and understanding of the motorist, we must also get the co-operation and understanding of the cyclist and of the pedestrian. Indeed, much requires to be done where cyclists and pedestrians are concerned. We are all inclined to hammer the motorist. Many of us watch pedestrians stepping out willy nilly into the path of oncoming traffic and cyclists veering across the road without a signal of any kind, creating emergency situations that are, by popular will, thrown on the motorist, when in many cases it is not his responsibility at all. I should like to see, and I am perfectly willing to co-operate to the full in developing, more co-operation and goodwill between the different sections using our roads, so that there will not be criticism of some while a very large proportion of the community avoid the responsibility which is theirs.
I know this is a subject very dear to the Parliamentary Secretary's heart and I know he has made tremendous efforts to get the road safety campaign into proper focus. However, we want more than lining of roads. We want, above all, to learn some of the courtesies of the road and some of the patience and goodwill that are necessary where we are driving in fairly tough traffic conditions. I have never known traffic in any country to be less inclined to give way than the streams of Irish traffic. We all know the frustrations and difficulties that build up as a result of this continued lack of courtesy that leads to cutting out, cutting across or cutting in, that causes emergency situations, as a result of which we see too often accidents headlines in our daily newspapers involving the untimely death of young people or the multilation of persons whose lives are thus impaired. There must be developed understanding and appreciation of the fact that it is better to be two minutes late for an appointment than to be many years early in eternity.
Reference has been made to other facets of the Department of Local Government. The Department have wide powers in relation to licensing and to safety belts and various other devices in cars. The administration of the Department of Local Government should get out of the suspect atmosphere and any of the regulations that have to be enforced should be enforced with a rigidity and impartiality that will defy the sinister criticisms as to arrangements that can be made outside the knowledge of people for certain things to be done.
A great deal has been said about swimming pools. I was rather amused by some of the remarks that have been made because it was in 1948, when I was a raw recruit to this House, that I proposed the first motion in connection with swimming pools and suggested that grants should be made available for such pools. I know that swimming pools are not now a priority in time of financial difficulties. I feel we are pushing an open door where the Department of Local Government are concerned in asking them to give their blessing to plans being submitted so that when the circumstances alter—and alter they will; we are not going to be afflicted by bad Governments for ever and we will be able to correct the financial situation in due course—these plans can be implemented. I should like to see these plans dealt with on merit and approved so that when the opportunity presents itself, there will be no delay and so no backward and forward tally between the Department and the local authority as to whether a certain type of material or colour should be incorporated in the pool.
I think Deputy Burke is right in suggesting that persons who are now contemplating the provision of worthwhile utility swimming pools in their areas should be encouraged to insist on the pools being of a type that can be heated.
A great deal of the trouble that has arisen in relation to administration in local Government has been caused by the atmosphere of suspicion. Delay in holding local elections is a bad thing per se because people should have the right to re-assess the merit of their local representatives within the normal statutory period. In the case of central administration, a general election may arise in circumstances of difficulty or the defeat of a Government on a financial motion, and it does seem unreasonable that there should be continued delay in giving the ordinary people who have to find the money for much of local administration an opportunity to assess the value of the contribution made by their local representatives. That delay becomes all the more nauseating when it is realised that the reason local elections are not being held is purely to avoid the embarrassment the Government might suffer because of their chaotic handling of the nation's affairs and to avoid answering for the paramount causes of the shortage of money now affecting the big tasks the Department of Local Government have to undertake.
There is no good in talking here of the various difficulties that now exist without letting the people know what the reality of the situation is. The Government, in their present difficulties, mainly of their own making, are afraid to give an opportunity to public opinion to express itself on their policies. That reluctance is becoming more marked since the Government got the shock they did get in the Presidential election. Indeed, while I do not want to cavil, there was much in the administration by the Department of Local Government of that election that calls for very serious investigation, particularly the bizarre way in which people who over the years had been worthy of jobs of returning officer and poll clerk, were overlooked or ignominiously sacked in case of any miscalculation.