Press release
Cabinet approves drafting of Road Traffic Measures Bill 2023
Published on
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Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and Minister of State for Transport Jack Chambers have welcomed today’s decision by the government to approve for formal drafting of the General Scheme of the Road Traffic Measures Bill 2023. The Bill aims to provide for penalty point reform, mandatory drug testing at the scene of collisions, and safer speed limits.
The Road Traffic Measures Bill will enable a robust response to the increasing trend in road fatalities. It is hoped that the above measures will support the delivery of the government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 targets of reducing fatalities on our roads by 50% this decade and achieving Vision Zero—no deaths or injuries on our roads—by 2050.
In the case of penalty points, an Act of the Oireachtas is currently required each time the penalties associated with certain offences are updated. This is a barrier to updating penalties in a timely manner in response to emerging trends, and the Bill seeks to address this by empowering the Minister for Transport to vary penalty points in regulations. The Houses of the Oireachtas will still have a say in penalty points, however, with an approved motion required in both houses before any change could take effect.
As an extension of this change, the Bill also proposes that the Minister for Transport will be empowered to set higher penalties for driving offences during specified periods, such as bank holiday weekends. Evidence shows that more deaths, serious accidents, and other breaches of road traffic law occur on bank holiday weekends.
The final piece of penalty point reform concerns the treatment of multiple penalty point offences occurring on the same occasion. Currently when a person commits more than one penalty point offence on the same occasion, they will receive only one set of penalty points, which will be the highest or joint highest. In contrast, someone who commits those offences on separate occasions will receive penalty points for each offence. This Bill will amend this legal anomaly, to ensure that penalty points are awarded for each breach of penalty point offences.
This new Bill will also introduce mandatory drug testing at the scene of road traffic collisions. At present, An Garda Síochána are required to take a breath specimen for the purpose of testing for the presence of alcohol. This is known as ‘mandatory alcohol testing’ at the scene of road traffic accidents. Gardaí are not required to conduct mandatory drug testing at the scene of a collision but have the option of doing so. This new Bill will require members of An Garda Síochána to test for drugs at the scene of collisions.
The recently published Speed Limit Review contains a number of recommendations for changes to the speed limit framework. This Bill will include amendments to existing speed limit legislation for the implementation of safer default speed limits on national secondary roads, local roads and urban roads, which includes built up areas as well as housing estates and town centres.
Speaking after the meeting of Government today, Minister Ryan said:
"The trend we are seeing on our roads is hugely concerning. There has been an increase in the number of deaths in three out of the last four years and there is little sign, unfortunately, that this is changing. We need to implement robust measures to ensure that more families don’t suffer the pain of losing a loved one on our roads. Government approval for the proposals on penalty points today will get rid of the anomalies that have meant that some people have been able to avoid the full impact of their dangerous actions on our roads and puts us on the path to fast-tracking this important legislation before Christmas."
Minister Chambers said:
"We have witnessed a terrible increase in the number of fatalities on our roads this year. As Minister with responsibility for road safety, I am determined to do everything in my power to reduce road deaths. Progress is being made to increase enforcement and compliance on our roads but we are also responding with this new legislation, covering a range of issues and trends, that have been identified as being significant contributors to collisions on our roads in one single bill so the changes required can be made in a timely manner. A more robust penalty points system, mandatory drug testing and safer speed limits are an important part of our response to these trends and delivering on our 2030 and 2050 road safety targets."