I would think that it is fairly rare that one day after the implementation date of a new Act that headlines such as ‘Drink Driving Laws too Weak’ would appear(The Times 27/10/18) . However, this is the Act that Minister Ross introduced to appease public pressure to do something about the mess that are the RTA’s and their policing. It was also a Bill that was heavily criticised, not for the proposed penalties but for any realistic attempt to reform the rickety structure that governs enforcement of the Road Traffic Acts in Ireland. I wrote an essay on the subject in July, using data mainly drawn from an RTE program and the basic issues that were raised were not addressed in any serious way (.At the Stroke of a Pen) In summary the main recommendations were:
- A reformed and properly resourced traffic corps.
- Consolidate the RTA’s to reduce the possibility of legal loopholes
- Ensure equal application of the law in all Courts
- Enforce the banning orders. Compliance is currently estimated to be around 35%
Politicians believe that passing a law solves a problem but it is obvious that unless it is resourced and enforced that we are only tinkering with the matter, I would repeat my closing question from my July essay.
How about it Minister? Do you think that yet another Amendment will cut road deaths or, would joined up enforcement make a bigger difference?