What is there to say about the passage of the new Road Traffic (Amendment) Act? Surely there can be no question that imposing alcohol limits of 50mg/100ml of blood can save lives and this supported by a ban for those above 80mg/100ml, must be applauded.
It seems so obvious that supporters of the Bill accused the opponents of being responsible for alcohol related road deaths whilst, mainly rural T.D.’s, tried to filibuster the Bill out of time in the Dáil. Shane Ross castigated them and accused them of, “political vandalism” and further stated ‘that with drink driving rampant in Ireland that the Bill showed that the authorities were taking the problem seriously.’ (The Times Irish Ed.10/07/18) And here is the rub.
Let’s consider some data before we go any further:
- • Between the years June 2009 and April 2017 the Garda Pulse system recorded 1,458,221 breathalyser tests that did not take place. (The Irish Times, 06/09/17)
• 14,700 motorists were incorrectly convicted due to IT failures. (The Irish Times, 06/09/17)
• Minister of Justice, Charlie Flanagan was reported to be ‘greatly disturbed’ by extent of the falsification. .(The Irish Times, 06/09/17)
• Only 73% of summonses for all crimes were served in 2016. (RTE 24/03/18)
• In 2016, of the approx. 5000 drink driving offences, only 58% were successfully prosecuted. (RTE 24/03/18)
• The RTAs are consistently amended so that they have become very complex and open to challenge. A working group was set up some two years ago to consolidate the Road Traffic Laws but have not produced the basis for a Consolidation Bill, to date. This allows appeals on technicalities as noted in the RTE program.
• Informal sanctions, such as contributions to the poor box, to avoid a criminal record and penalty points were still being used with 223 instances in the first nine months of 2017. This is despite a High Court ruling in 2014 that the District Court had no power to offer an informal sanction of this sort. (RTE 24/03/18) - The outcomes of trials can depend on geography and luck. For example, 15% of dangerous driving convictions in Cork resulted in imprisonment whereas, none of the 115 convictions in Kerry had to same outcome. (RTE 24/03/18)
It is difficult to see where you begin when faced with so much disorder and inefficiency in the Justice system. Even the data that is used to formulate policy is suspect with anything from murder to housing statistics under query. An honest approach may have been to put additional legislation on hold and try to sort out the mess that is the real reason why we have so much disorder on the roads. Does that mean that the filibustering TDs were right in their opposition to the latest amendment? I think that they were really fighting another battle with which I have some sympathy and that is the continuous leeching of power and population away from rural Ireland and the imposition of metro rule from the city.
In some ways political success is measure by the amount of legislation passed and money spent. The solution to road deaths is to create more law to add to the rickety structure that makes up the RTAs. This will see the current Minister through his current post and the government to the end of it’s term. A more honest and far more difficult task would be to increase the traffic corps: enforce existing law: ensure offenders are brought to court: simplify the law to block loopholes: standardise penalties and ensure enforcement of convictions. This would be a far better legacy to leave behind than yet another sop to public opinion. How about it Minister? Do you think that yet another Amendment will cut road deaths or, would joined up enforcement make a bigger difference? Perhaps we should follow fashion and hold a referendum on the subject.
Update 30/07/18
It seems that the Minister of Justice, Charlie Flanagan, has asked Shane Ross for a second time to sort out the legislative mess that are the Road Traffic Acts (Sunday Times 29/07/18). As he says, “Too many people are being brought to court and acquitted on a technicality. Much of that law, which has evolved over the last 50 years, is cumbersome and there are overlaps and there is a difficulty in interpretation which has given rise to fewer convictions than should be the case.”
References
The Times (Irish Edition), 10/07/18, Katie O’Neill
The Irish Times, 06/09/17, Sara Bardon-Mark Hilliard-Hajar Aki, www.irishtimes.com
RTE Investigates Law and Disorder, Updated 24/03/18, https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit The Sunday Times, 29/07/18, Stephen O’Brien, Ross Pushed to Close Loopholes…