Debate contribution: Motor Vehicles (Specified Restrictions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026

Debate contribution by Mrs Sinéad Ennis on 23 June 2026.

MLA: Mrs Sinéad Ennis
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 23 June 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Motor Vehicles (Specified Restrictions) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5637229

Text

I, too, associate myself with the Minister's comments on the tragic death of Kourtney McCormick. I send my condolences and sympathy to her family at this very sad time. Road safety should be a priority for us all. I therefore welcome the motion to approve the statutory rule on graduated driver licensing that has been brought before the Assembly. While I was not on the Committee for Infrastructure throughout the entirety of its scrutiny of the SR, I believe that, as the Chair has set out, stakeholders and witnesses have supported the introduction of GDL as a means to improve road safety, particularly for young people. As the Minister has set out, it is only one link in a chain of actions that she is taking to improve road safety alongside the introduction of a lower legal alcohol limit, legislation to further address the use of mobile phones while driving and a safer journeys to school programme and related legislation. It is clear that the Minister is steadfast in her commitment to doing everything that she can to improve road safety and reduce the high number of deaths that we continue to see on our roads. Looking at 2025 statistics and seeing that 56 people lost their lives on our roads across the North should act as a reminder to us that we all have more to do and that all of us who drive on our roads have a responsibility to make them safer. Fifty-six people being killed on our roads means that 56 families, workplaces and clubs feel the huge loss of a loved one. Things definitely have to change. I think that we all recognise and respect that.
The primary objective of the shaking up of driver licensing here in the North is to improve road safety by ensuring that young people are better equipped for driving on our roads. However, at present, many young people pass their tests and are completely priced out of driving because of the insurance rip-off that we are seeing. I take this opportunity, as Sinn Féin continues to do, to call on the insurance companies to step up, take notice of the changes that we will be making here in the autumn and reflect those changes in the prices that they quote to new drivers. Young people will play their part through the new process, but being quoted an extortionate £5,000 for insurance is not acceptable. It needs to be reduced, and insurance companies need to play their part and work with the Assembly on that issue. Profiteering on the backs of new and young drivers is wrong and, in the midst of a rising cost-of-living crisis, many of them simply cannot afford to get on the road. I commend the Minister for her efforts on GDL, as a measure to make our roads safer, and I welcome the Minister's commitment to rolling out a major public information campaign to further raise awareness and support for GDL. I look forward to seeing the positive impact that it, as well as the other measures that I have listed that the Minister is implementing, will have on our roads and our road users.

530 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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