Road Safety Authority and licence cards
Deputy Mattie McGrath attacked the handling of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill and the planned mandatory public services card requirement for driving licences, calling it wasteful and dysfunctional. The Taoiseach suggested the Deputy raise it as a Topical Issue or priority question to the Minister.
On the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017, I want to ask what is going on over there. Has dysfunction also spread to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport? The Road Safety Authority has come under intense pressure from civil servants to make use of the public services card mandatory for all driving licence applications. They spent €2 million on the project before the Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, pulled the plug on it. What, in God's name, is going on? We have been accused of filibustering and delaying the Bill when we want to point to basic flaws in it. It is unworkable. A sum of €2 million has been spent in trying to make use of the public services card mandatory for all driving licence applications. I know - it is very funny. The Government Front Bench might now listen.
Comment on this
They are only gimmicking and acting the you-know-what, or the Ned, as we call it in Tipperary. That is what they are doing, the three of them, but it is not funny. A sum of €2 million has just been thrown away and the proposal has now been scrapped. What is going on in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport? I know that the Minister is not here. He is never here to support the Government. Will the Taoiseach try to rein him in and have some examination of the waste in the Road Safety Authority?
