Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I join Deputy Kenny in expressing sympathy to the families of the two young Polish men who were so savagely murdered some nights ago. Unfortunately, this is not the first time there has been this type of occurrence on our streets. We have discussed it in the House previously. The House and Irish society must have a serious discussion about the random violence that is occurring and the degree to which people are unsafe going about their business on our streets. I hope the Garda is successful in apprehending the culprits and bringing them to justice. I express my sympathy to the families on their really awful loss.

I wish to raise two matters. On Tuesday, a roof tile blew off a building on Pearse Street and traffic throughout the city ground to a halt. On Wednesday, the safety system in the port tunnel crashed and traffic in the city again ground to a halt. The Government has been promising the Dublin transport authority Bill since 2006. The then Minister, Deputy Martin Cullen, promised in 2006 that the Bill would be published by Christmas that year. Christmas 2006 came and went but there was no Bill. It was the same story with Christmas 2007. The Bill is still on the legislative programme. When will it be introduced to provide for some co-ordination of traffic in Dublin?

Second, it is reported that the Health Service Executive has frozen funding for the homeless sector. According to the report, 60 new projects which were assessed for funding by the Homeless Agency cannot proceed in 2008. A total of 55 homeless people died on our streets in 2006. Money has been spent in this country on voting machines, equestrian centres and computer systems that never worked.

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