Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

What we do with taxpayers' money is relevant when one takes into account the amount spent on unused electronic voting machines.

Given that the legislation was enacted after the Garda Síochána had acquired the equipment, does the Minister accept gardaí have been put in an impossible position? I note the Minister's expertise in sending a hospital pass to his colleague, the Minister for Transport, who is responsible for the Road Traffic Act. He is passing the ball away from himself. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is responsible for the Garda Síochána and, as a result of the enactment of that legislation, it has been put in an impossible situation in that instead of upholding the law, gardaí are forced to break it as a consequence of the Government's failure to enact road traffic legislation which conformed to the equipment being used or, alternatively, to provide new equipment which complied with the Act.

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