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Dempsey is a Muppet
Read more about: Fianna Fail, Government, Green Party, Irish Politics, Meath, Transport
No two ways about it, the main man Noel Dempsey is having a nightmare of a time in Transport. He has been badly undone by Aer Lingus and the FOI revelations (even though the civil servant took the rap) and now his handling of the driver’s licence regulations is woeful beyond belief. How can one screw up an initative to stop people dying on the road?
On The Last Word last night, he gave an interview which seemed to nail on the principle of enforcement from Tuesday for the new rules. No doubt the rules are needed and they are probably being implemented with too little lead in time but the Minister is clearly flailing when he arrives on to The News at One to suggest that enforcement will be ‘discreet‘ and suggest to listeners that Gardai won’t be enforcing it really until January or February. The interview was a mess, he was a mess (he didn’t know the fines on the radio last night or on Morning Ireland this mornign) and he is becoming politically quite damaged, a bit of an issue if he wants to succeed Bertie.
There is not much he can do once the law is passed to influence the Gardai enforcement of the law and their commitment to enforce the law fully is to be welcomed in the sense that it avoids any political interference. The Gardai may well adopt a low-profile to enforcing this but their role is not to extricate a struggling Minister from the excrement swimming around his ankles.
The proposal itself is well known at this stage, in principle its a sound proposal with some issues around the amount of time you are giving provisional drivers to get a full licence. On top of that he has his government partners weighing in with their own concerns on implementation. Surely the manner in which the Greens are sticking to that strategy of ‘critical engagement’ must be getting on FF nerves, however it is probably working for them.
The roost is so crowded with chickens at this point that we’re going to need a second roost. Dempsey got blindsided by yet another authority — this time the RSA, just as Mary Harney only seems to find out with the rest of us what the HSE is doing, Dempsey was never told what the DAA knew about Shannon and who knows what the RPA has in store for us with the next round of urban transport schemes. They’ve outsourced all the decision making to authorities and agencies and no one pays attention until it blows up in the papers.
You hit the nail on the head Cian. Sound in principle. Not in fact.
Bertie is going to have a harder time than usual pulling his Teflon act, since he was there at the launch and even said –
The Strategy outlines how young drivers represent the highest risk category on our roads and how international experience indicates that Graduated Driver Licensing Systems (GDL) can have a beneficial effect in road safety terms.
The Strategy outlines a comprehensive range of GDL measures under consideration to improve safety for learner drivers. The proposed re-titling of the provisional licence as a learner permit is to emphasise that the document is not a full driving licence and that the holder has to take seriously the task of learning to drive and obtain a full driving licence.
I understand that Minister Dempsey has signed Regulations to bring the first phase of these measures into effect from 30 October. These new measures will play an important role in improving driver behaviour amongst young, inexperienced drivers.
Watching Dempsey on the news (he seemed a bit shook) it was interesting that he wrapped himself in the ’safety’ angle. Which is absolutely right, except that he was conflating it with ‘inconvenience’ to all those who now had to wrestle with the system re tests. Not sure that will play well. He also made the curious point that since people were now logging on to sign up for tests at the rate of 300 per hour this showed how ’successful’ the new measures were. Well… yes, if by success he means that times to tests will get even longer again…
I’m back on the petition trail again folks
http://www.petitiononline.com/moretime/petition.html
In essence, these are by in large good ideas that are being delivered in such a half arsed manner so as to undermine confidence in the law and in the enforcement of the law. If these proposals had been introduced 3 years ago with the intention that Oct 31st was the deadline and that people could get tests inside a timeframe comparable to international norms and to a similar standard while addressing the concerns that almost all Irish people appear to have about the functioning of the test system then I would welcome them with open arms. Instead this policy is 100% about appearing to do something which involves no budgetary allocation but demands that people behave in manner contrary to government policy in many other areas in particular the provision of public transport options and the development of housing across most of the country.
I would also ask if it is now government policy that all ministers can direct the Gardai not to enforce the law on a whim?
Online petitions aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, frankly.
As I’ve said elsewhere - great ideas, badly needed but implemented in the most backward of ways by a Minister who is now desperately trying to tell us that rules are rules and they’re there for a reason but they won’t be enforced properly so we shouldn’t worry about them too much.
@ P your right on the decision making. Its gone too far though by a mile at this rate. when you see the inability of politicians to deliver a decent idea though it goes beyond the outsourcing of accountability and into sheer incompetence.
this is a good idea. Its a necessary idea, as WBS has intimated. This has been handled in the worst possible fashion.
There was a lot of talk from two years ago that provisionals will be tightened up and talk of getting tests. We have not had a deadline as such but this has been happening for a while now.
WBS if you get a handle on Dempseys logic would you mind letting us in on it? In the name of public service cos i cant get a handle on it at all.
I liked The Muppets. It’s too kind a word for Dempsey. How about arrogantignorantcrookedsnakeoilsalesman. Oh I know, it’s a neologism.