Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issues in regard to road safety are paramount. That really needs to be where the focus has to happen, particularly in the context of the tragedies on the roads in the last 12 to 18 months. The difficulty is that the safest roads in the country are usually our motorways. It is more on primary and smaller country roads where most of the accidents happen or where there are difficulties. They are much more difficult to monitor and it is practically impossible to put those kinds of stationary cameras in place on them to check speeds, etc. It is very difficult to do that. There needs to be an emphasis on coming up with measures to ensure those roads are made safer, as well as encouraging people to use them more safely.

Finally, I wanted to circle back to the issue of public transport, particularly in Dublin, and our bus services. I, as well as many people, noticed that many of the staff who drive the buses and trams, etc., are people from outside the country. When various agencies come before the committee, they tell us they cannot get staff and they have to advertise abroad to try to get staff. It would be a very valid message for the Department to put out in order to make the public aware that if people from abroad did not come here to do that work, those services would not exist. That is something we need to say loud and clear to people. There is this narrative that goes around that somehow people who come from abroad to Ireland are a kind of a burden on the State or are doing the State some disservice. In fact, it is the direct opposite. All of us, both in opposition and in government, need to make that very clear.

In many cases, it is not the very highly paid positions that we need workers for. It is for jobs such as cleaners and other basic jobs that would be considered to be low paid. These are not jobs for high-fliers. We cannot get people to take up those jobs and we need to get people to come from abroad to do them. It would be very useful if the Department made it clear to everyone that we should be respectful to those who drive the buses and trams. When I speak to the unions and people there, they tell me of racial abuse and of people being extremely rude and obnoxious to them.

The Minister mentioned today the tradition of saying, “Thank you” to the bus driver when you get off. Unfortunately, many people have gotten to the stage where they do not do that anymore. It is the opposite. We need to check ourselves as a society in that regard. This narrative has created huge tensions and difficulties, which brought us to where we were last Thursday night. We all have a responsibility to push back on that.