There is a growing problem in this city of under-age persons driving cars with no tax or insurance with consequent difficulties posed for the Garda Síochána in coming to grips with this menace. I am highlighting this issue this evening because I am aware of the concerns of residents in an inner city area flat complex who know that a car which killed a nine year old child had been stopped by the Garda Síochána earlier that day but that both the car and its occupants were allowed to proceed. On making inquiries to the Garda Síochána it was confirmed for me that the vehicle had been stopped, possibly twice, on that fateful day and only then I discovered to my amazement and horror the difficult legal procedures facing our gardaí.
It appears that old bangers of cars can be purchased for as little as £50 to £100 from various sources, including travellers trading in cars in car parks and various locations throughout the city, and these cars, or others acquired from other sources, are often test driven on the open road before purchase. Very often under-age youngsters are acquiring these cars and driving them around city streets, housing estates and flat complexes. I put it to the Minister that it requires no imagination at all to picture the potential power to ruin the life of not just the drivers of these cars but of any innocent family whose child is killed or injured by these cars.
It appears that under the various road traffic Acts a driver of one of these cars who is stopped by a garda and who looks as young as 14 years of age or even younger can only be asked to produce within ten days tax and insurance certificates at a Garda station of his or her choice. Even if the driver is clearly under-age the garda cannot assume there is no insurance and has no option but to allow the car to proceed. After ten days the driver might then be subject to prosecution, but the point I am making is that failure to produce tax and insurance certificates is, quite rightly, not an arrestable offence.
There must be some way the Minister can fill the gap which is in the law. Gardaí, because of the inadequate state of the law, have to allow untaxed, uninsured cars to be driven by under-age youths. The Minister must address this anomaly. There is at present no legal framework and I will be happy to hear how the Minister proposes to solve this problem.
Although this is a growing problem in certain inner city areas, and other districts, it is not an exclusive problem of the poor or the inner city. In middle class areas the sons and daughters of the well to do, equally under-age, often take their parents' car. This leaves innocent people in those communities equally vulnerable to death or injury. I ask the Minister to address this growing problem as quickly as possible before there are further deaths or injuries from such vehicles.
