Taoiseach rejects calls to sack Dempsey

The Taoiseach today rejected Opposition calls in the Dáil to sack the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey over his handling of the controversial provisional driver regulations in the Road Safety Strategy.

Rules were due to come into force yesterday stipulating that 120,000 drivers on a second provisional licence had to be accompanied by a qualified driver.

However, a public outcry over the weekend forced Mr Dempsey to initially allow a three-month lead-in period before he postponed the introduction of the regulations until the end of June, 2008.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny today branded the confusion “a monumental fiasco” and the most humiliating u-turn in Irish politics.

Mr Kenny referred to previous controversies that dogged the minister like university fees and electronic voting and asked Mr Ahern if he was going to dismiss the minister.

But Mr Ahern said he would not sack Mr Dempsey because he wanted him to continue in his position.

“I’ll let him get on with the job. He’ll try to do the job to the best of his ability and he’s doing that,” Mr Ahern said.

The Taoiseach added that it would be “very challenging” to deal with the test backlog of 120,000 provisional drivers between now and next year, but it could be achieved.

Extra resources would be sought from the Finance Minister to employ more private testers, he said.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore asked Mr Ahern: “How many mistakes does a minister have to make before his continuance in office becomes an issue with you?

“No matter how badly he screws up, there’s no question of an apology to the House.”