Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I hope all is well in Tallaght.

I congratulate the Minister on staying where he is. It is nice to have a Minister from my county and I suppose that one of the main reasons he remained in his position was to open the M3. I hope he invites us all to that, unlike the Battle of the Boyne commemoration, in respect of which all our councillors were left sitting at home.

I will specifically address road safety. Last month was only the third in the past 100 months in which the number of deaths were kept below 20. One has to congratulate everybody responsible for that, whether it be the Garda, the Road Safety Authority or the Minister. In the past 100 months, deaths have been kept below 25 in only 20 months. We should encourage people to listen to road safety advice. Some people might not agree but I thought the Garda Síochána was out in force last weekend. I was stopped three or four times, which is welcome in terms of raising awareness.

Certain people may not want us to discuss blood-alcohol levels but our young people do not want us to drink and drive, nor will they do so themselves. We cannot afford to be weak on this issue. There are many reasons for the decline of rural life so we should not simply listen to those who oppose drink driving limits. The time has come to consider removing VRT on vehicles used to supply social activities for young and old, such as visits to the rural pub. While visiting Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday, I spoke to Dublin people who avail of these transport opportunities. More evident than the price of drink in some pubs or the reduction in blood-alcohol limits, the destruction of rural life stems from people buying drink and drugs for little or nothing and then being killed on the roads.

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