Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 November 2017
88. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if there is a team in his Department working on the consolidation of Road Traffic Acts in view of the fact that the Taoiseach has said it should be a priority; if the Law Reform Commission is also involved in this work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49138/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Road Traffic Acts are based at present on legislation dating from 1961, which has been updated numerous times. There is general agreement among experts in the legislation - whose views I share - that this legislation would benefit from being consolidated and updated.
The issue of consolidation has often been misunderstood. Consolidation is not a simple matter of taking all of the Road Traffic legislation currently in force and re-enacting it in a single Bill. It will be necessary to consider, point by point, whether the matters addressed in the legislation are in fact being addressed properly and in a manner appropriate to current circumstances. There would be little value in undertaking a project of consolidation only to replicate all that is already on the statute books. We would find ourselves having to amend and update the consolidation immediately and repeatedly. An exercise like that would be a waste of time and resources.
Beside updating the legislation where necessary, in cases where matters are already addressed satisfactorily in the current legislation, it would still be necessary to scrutinize that legislation to see if it could be better expressed. The project in question is large and will take a great deal of time. A reasonable estimate at this stage is that a team would need to be allocated to work on it for approximately three years.
I do not believe that the Law Reform Commission is the appropriate body to undertake this work. The Deputy may wish to note that the Commission operates on the basis of a multi-annual programme approved by the Government as a whole, and does not undertake such projects at the direction of an individual Minister.
My Department has, unavoidably, been working in recent years to update aspects of the Road Traffic Acts which require urgent updating. In light of the fact that my officials are currently working on a number of Bills, most of which are primarily focused on road safety, it is not possible to commence such a consolidation project at this time.
My priority is the progression of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017. Following the passage of this Bill, I will give further consideration to the consolidation matter.
