Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the speakers on their informative contributions. I have a question on whether a 60 km/h zone should follow a 100 km/h zone. Awarding two penalty points to a driver caught doing 67 km/h in a 60 km/h zone is harsh. Is a different view taken of someone doing 70 km/h and someone doing 65 km/h? Driving 7 km/h over a speed limit is the equivalent to driving 4.5 km/h too fast and it is a bit harsh to award two penalty points for such a breach.

I have a question on litter offences. Mr. Faughnan said that litter has nothing to do with road safety but I have an issue with this. I am trying to catch somebody who slows down their car in a 40 km/h zone to drop a bag of ashes and a bag of household refuse on a public road in the middle of a nice town, where it remains. It poses a danger to oncoming traffic and drivers must try to avoid it. I have seen other instances of this and witnessed such offences. If I catch the owner of the car I would like to think that he or she would receive penalty points on their licence and I support Deputy Ellis's view on the matter.

I have a question on the nationwide review of all speed limits, particularly in rural areas where none seem to exist or there is no indication of same but a maximum 80 km/h speed limit applies. There are 800 miles of road in my county and 8% of them have an 80 km/h speed limit. It should be halved and I should have brought photographs with me to prove my point. Its not good enough to have a carte blanche 80 km/h limit when the roads are not fit for Stirling Moss, Michael Schumacher or any Formula 1 driver to drive on. They simply could not do such speed on the roads. I ask for a more realistic speed limit to be applied.

There was a question and comment on mobile telephone usage. Practically all drivers have a mobile telephone of which many can be fixed in their cars. It is a distraction to receive or answer a call while driving. I doubt the statistics that we were given earlier and believe that a larger percentage of male and female drivers use their mobile telephones on a daily basis while driving. I am a doubting Thomas.