Ross may outsource drafting of speed law

Minister claims his department is ‘under-resourced’

TRANSPORT Minister Shane Ross is considering outsourcing the drafting of a new law which would see motorists who break the speed limits hit with higher penalty points.

Mr Ross has said he wants to bring in higher speeding fines, the faster a motorist drives.

Mr Ross said speeding needs to be treated like drink driving and that he hopes to introduce one road traffic bill every year.

‘I hope to introduce a bill which attacks speed in rather the same way to alcohol, in that the faster people go, the more penalty points, which moves them further to disqualification.

‘People would know that if they went over the limit twice, they could be disqualified.’ Transport brief: Shane Ross

One road traffic bill currently making its way through the Dáil would see drivers found with a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood facing a mandatory ban.

Mr Ross said that a lack of resources could mean that the Department of Transport is not in a position to begin drafting another road traffic bill on speeding, and so he is looking at outsourcing the drafting of that legislation.

‘Once that first bill is through, we will work on the speed bill, but I want to see it this year,’ he said. ‘It is frustrating; you can’t introduce a bill just like that, there are limited resources.’

Asked on Newstalk about possibly asking an external individual or firm to draw up the law, he said: ‘That is something I am exploring with my department: hire someone, possibly a law firm, that can draw up bills and it is no excuse that we are under-resourced.

‘There are lives at stake, and where lives are at stake, you can’t claim that we are underresourced. Where this does happen, and the department are working very hard, I will look at outsourcing. If that is one of the clogs let’s sort it out.’

Mr Ross also did not rule out people being taken off the roads even it was their first speeding offence.

He said: ‘If people commit really serious offences and drive dangerously at a speed which is totally irresponsible, I wonder whether it is enough to give them a few penalty points and say “come back for more tomorrow”.

‘So that is something we are looking at.’

His comments are in response to the latest road safety figures which show there has been a drop in the number of deaths on our roads.

There were 158 deaths on Irish roads in 2017, which is 15% less than the previous year.

‘There are lives at stake’