Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

On a more serious issue, we have heard the Chief Whip and Minister of State, Deputy Tom Kitt, and the Taoiseach thinking aloud on legislation. The Minister of State indicated that changes were possible on penalty points. On the relevant legislation, of the 88,000 who ignored penalty points issued to them last year, only 17% were successfully prosecuted. The vast majority of this group are successfully ignoring penalty points.

On intoxicating liquor legislation, only 14 people have been prosecuted for selling drink to minors and 75% of those issued with fines for drinking in public places ignored them. Of these, only one in 200 was prosecuted for failure to pay the fine. Is it not time for more order and less law and enforcement of the laws in place rather than dreaming up new laws to grab headlines? The House continually passes laws which are not enforced.

On the cutbacks rumoured for later this year——

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