Taoiseach is warned about his speeding
Sunday February 02 2003
SPEEDING State cars, including that of the Taoiseach, are "needlessly and recklessly putting lives at risk", Mr Ahern and the Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne have been warned.
Mr Ahern and the Cabinet are "not above the law", according to letters sent to the Taoiseach and Mr Byrne by the Chairman of the National Safety Council, Mr Eddie Shaw.
"If it is the case that ministers believe that they have a right to abuse ... the law by requesting their drivers to get from A to B and arrive at a time that clearly involves breaking the speed limit, then they need to be disabused of this notion," Mr Shaw said.
In correspondence seen by the Sunday Independent, it has emerged that this is not the first time these warnings have been issued.
Two previous warnings had been issued to the Garda Commissioner, who is responsible for most ministerial drivers. Only acknowledgements were received by Mr Shaw.
Clearly irate at this, before Christmas he again addressed the question of speeding ministers in a letter to the Commissioner: "It is quite simply irresponsible to behave in this way. Yet all the indications are that this is common practice and is acceptable to the Taoiseach and to you. No one is above the law."
In a letter to Mr Ahern last May, Mr Shaw warned: "Neither you nor any other member of the travel party, drivers and passengers, are exempt or immune from the laws of physics."
Three ministers John O'Donoghue, Micheal Martin and Noel Treacy have all been at the centre of speeding controversies. Two weeks ago, it emerged that Minister Noel Treacy was caught speeding in his ministerial car on September 10 last in Laois. The Taoiseach also came in for sustained criticism for the speed of his campaign cavalcade during the last general election.
The National Safety Council accepts that the gardai "under certain circumstances" are exempt from the speed limit. However, Mr Shaw warns that ministers exploiting this exemption are behaving in an "irresponsible way". He said: "I do not accept that [the exemption] includes football matches, election canvassing timetables, delivering a minister's family to their home or other activities."
Mr Shaw also accused ministers of 'undermining' the Government's own Road Safety Strategy. And he asked how the strategy could be implemented "with credibility when behaviour like this clearly signals that the Taoiseach, ministers and the Garda drivers believe that the Road Safety Strategy does not include them".
Mr Shaw also wrote in his letter to the Commissioner: "Whether we like it or not this is precisely how these incidents [speeding ministers] are interpreted do as I say but not as I do."
Mr Shaw warned that some day, if this continued, "There will be a collision involving a minister using a Garda driver and perhaps another road user. There will be a fatality or a serious injury or both."
Mr Shaw, an expert in risk management, pointedly reminded Mr Ahern that during the two years before the election, a number of gardai had been killed and seriously injured in high-speed crashes.
"For your own safety and the safety of others travelling under your leadership, to whom I believe you have a duty of care, I urge you to travel at an appropriate and safe speed," he told the Taoiseach.
The letter to Mr Byrne was sparked by reports that Minister for Health Micheal Martin's official car was caught speeding in Co Kerry last October. The matter was also discussed at the Government's High Level Group Meeting on Road Safety, which was attended by Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick.
"First and foremost is my concern for the safety of the driver, the minister and other road users," said Mr Shaw.
- JEROME REILLY EXCLUSIVE
