Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

The Minister read out those figures and stated they were interesting. That is quite an understatement. Those figures are a national disgrace and an indictment of the Government's ability to tackle this problem.

We all accept that there is a serious cultural problem with alcohol in this country and it is a problem on which all agencies and interests must work together to overcome. The Minister has an opportunity in this legislation. I would go so far as to say he has a serious responsibility to change that culture and one does that by changing the law and ensuring the law is enforced. Those figures show that most people ignore the fact that there is a limit in place at present. It is the Minister's responsibility to ensure a proper enforcement regime is in place.

I ask the Minister not to continue doing this. Any time we ask him about enforcement, Garda numbers, Garda activity or such like, he states that these are matters over which he does not have control and which are for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. That kind of buck passing is no longer good enough or acceptable from the Minister. A few months ago he set up this supposedly high level Cabinet sub-committee to deal with road safety so the Minister should stop making excuses. The Government is supposed to be dealing with this issue collectively and giving it priority attention. He should do so and stop stating that is someone else's responsibility. It is the Minister's responsibility as the person who has responsibility for the road safety strategy.

My party is stating here that it is time to show leadership on the matter and send out a strong clear message that drinking and driving will not be tolerated. One does that by bringing our limits into line with those of the rest of Europe and by ensuring, first, that the Garda gets a clear message from Government that it wants this matter tackled. At present, there is widespread ambivalence about alcohol and drink driving.

We know what has happened previously when attempts were made to reduce the limits. These Houses were overrun for a day by the vintners when they came in here. There was a significant backlash. We know what happened last year when there was talk of introducing café bars. The Minister should not play games on this. There is a massive vested interest in the drinks industry. It is his responsibility to stand up to these people because that kind of ambivalence is leading to the loss of life on a weekly basis in this country.

I urge the Minister to bring us into line with Europe and ensure that a clear message goes out to develop a new culture of respect for alcohol, at least when it comes to driving. There are many other matters. The Minister has flunked on the question of advertising by introducing a voluntary code. That is nonsense. He is doing the equivalent on the issue under discussion with some kind of voluntary self-regulation. He is stating people have personal responsibility. The Minister has responsibility for the law and for enforcement and he should take action on that. I am disappointed that he has not used this opportunity. All last year, any time we raised this we heard from the Minister that he was looking at it. This year the line has changed and it is the Road Safety Authority which is looking at it. How long more must we wait?

I am not prepared to accept the Minister's further long-fingering on this. I am pressing this amendment.

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