Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While I am a Member of this great House I will stand up for the rank and file members of the Garda Síochána on every occasion because the Minister for Justice and Equality certainly will not defend them.

In his contribution the Minister of State said that many people take a holiday from paying motor tax. Either the Minister of State or the person who wrote his speech should go back to speech-writing school, because their speech-writing leaves much to be desired. To suggest that a person would take a holiday from paying his or her motor tax is rubbish and I condemn it.

I want to raise an issue on behalf of those who own lorries, the majority of whom are in real financial difficulty. One may have a lorry parked by the house, but there may be no work for it. Motor tax on a lorry may be between €2,000 and €3,000 a year. If the Government was interested in being proactive in keeping people in employment, it would introduce legislation to allow for lorrymen to tax their lorries on a monthly basis, not on a three or six monthly basis. A lorryman could be idle for several months but might get a offer of several weeks work. He should be allowed to tax the lorry for that period to enable him to take on this work and make a few pounds for himself and his family. That is what the Government should be doing in legislation.

My problem with the Government is that it is staring into the skies, wondering from where we will attract foreign investment to create employment, while missing the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is our honest to God, hard-working people who are doing their best to find a day’s work for themselves or even provide for an employee or two. I take grave exception to the way the Minister portrayed his views.

I also take the opportunity to speak about the Road Safety Authority, RSA. I can only be complimentary to the agency as in 2005 there were 369 road deaths, while last year there were only 186. I acknowledge all involved in this excellent work. There is, however, such a thing as people getting it into their heads that they are geniuses about their work and, as we used to say long ago, their heads can become a small bit swelled. Recently the RSA proposed that fully licensed drivers accompanying young drivers on a provisional licence could be breathalysed. Who dreamed this up and thought it was a good idea? The person who drafted this ridiculous proposal should be breathalysed. It is the RSA going completely off the wall. What will it suggest next? Will it suggest that to make the roads completely safe we close them all together and stop traffic?

In his travels around the country the Ceann Comhairle will have seen farmers selling farm goods such as spuds, carrots, tomatoes and onions from stalls on the side of the road, a good development. Again, however, geniuses in the RSA have decided this is an unsafe practice and the Government agrees with them. This is ridiculous. If a farmer wants to set up a little stall beside a van on the side of the road, sell his or her goods and make a couple of pounds for himself or herself and his or her family, not only should he or she be allowed to do so, he or she should be encouraged to do so. It is ridiculous to suggest that because a person travelling in a motor car stops to purchase such goods it creates a road traffic hazard. Again, those suggesting this should be breathalysed because they are off the wall. We should encourage farmers to sell their farm goods. They should pick a safe location on the side of the road, set up their little stall and make a few pounds for themselves. Is that not what this country was all about? It was about people being resilient, hard-working, diligent and using their imagination to make a couple of pounds for themselves. For any Government and the RSA to condemn that practice shows it has gone off the wall.

It must be remembered these are the ones who fell asleep at the wheel when we were building motorways from Dublin to Cork and Limerick. What did the RSA do about ensuring there would be service stations on motorways where people could rest, have a cup of coffee, use a toilet and get a bite of food?

See this speech in context