I wrote a piece a couple of weeks ago about the poor standard of driving in this country.

It was published in The Echo on Monday morning, the day after the crash in Kildare in which five teenagers were killed after driving on the wrong side of the motorway.

It seems, judging by some of the comments I received, that readers thought I was referencing that accident. That was not the case.

In fact, I had submitted that piece to The Echo a week before that fatal incident. I was merely giving my opinion on the state of driving here generally, which I happen to think is atrocious.

I suggested that a model of defensive driving should be introduced to improve the awareness and observation of drivers which would help to reduce the number of accidents.

I acknowledge that all the instruction in the world won’t prevent drivers deliberately driving badly, but it may improve the behaviour of ordinary, decent drivers.

Criminal behaviour is a completely different matter and in the aftermath of the recent motorway incidents, there has been a huge call for action.

There is talk of bringing about a change in the legislation, with greater penalties for offenders and for pursuit training for members of An Garda Síochána.

Whatever about the former, pursuit training will be more problematic for a number of reasons.

Firstly, lack of enforcement is already a huge issue here and that’s down to a lack........

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