Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I commiserate with anyone who has lost a loved one in any road tragedy. I have seen quite a lot of it down through the years through my work. I see the devastating effects it has on the family and the community.

I must be honest and say that I have a conflict of interest when talking about this Bill because I have two brothers who work in the pub business in rural Ireland. My brother John has Chaplin's Bar in Bandon and my brother Danny has the Boston Bar in Bantry. My daughter works in two pubs, the Long Boat Bar in Durrus and Arundel's in Ahakista. There are some 25 jobs in those establishments. It is important to think of that. These are rural jobs, part-time and full-time. Every publican I know acts very responsibly and tries to care for his or her customers. If publicans do not care for the customer there is a long-term implication.

Where is the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, going with this Bill? It is a very anti-rural Bill as far as I can see. I remember a number of years ago when the Minister for Finance at the time came to the House with his budget and said he was giving an increase in children's allowance for the first two children but not the third child. There was an outcry. People asked what the Minister had against the third child. I want to ask the Minister, Deputy Ross, what has he against the people of rural Ireland. He certainly has a set on the people of rural Ireland with this Bill, and with a number of other issues I could mention. This matter, however, is the one we are speaking on today.

The Minister, Deputy Ross, is responsible for roads. There are many other factors resulting in people being killed on our roadsides. I do not agree with excessive drinking. I do not really drink much myself and if publicans had to depend on me, they would be pitied. There is, however, no talk about the Minister bringing in a Bill to shut the bar in Leinster House. In my view, it should be shut because we should not have a place of drink in Dáil Éireann. I will not drink alcohol in here. It should not be here. The Minister, Deputy Ross, should start leading by example. He should start by not bringing this Bill that will, obviously, damage rural Ireland. A Deputy across the floor of the House said earlier that rural Deputies were jumping up and down. Shame on any Deputy who would say that we would not stand up for our people. Shame on someone telling Deputies and the nation that it is the vintners who are against this measure. Of course, the vintners have peoples' livelihood's to protect; their own and their staff. They have young people who are depending on the job and the community depends on their service.

There are many other issues the Minister, Deputy Ross, is forgetting, which are the cause of loss of life in the State. I can name one of them. Why has the Minister not issued a report, or instructed the local authority to carry out a survey, on every roadside tree in the State that has caused a roadside death and which will continue to kill people? Two years ago, when I was a local authority member, I pushed as hard as I could to make sure that our local authority would do a report on trees that were falling over the roadside. We are lucky to have a great company in the ESB because the cables and the poles are holding up most of the roadside trees in west Cork. The Minister, however, will not worry about this issue. Do not worry about the loss of life if a tree falls on a person. These are the matters he should be looking at instead of picking on this issue, but this issue is popular. It is a highly emotional topic for many people.

I am aware of the lack of funding for roads in my constituency. The Minister, Deputy Ross, is in charge of roads. That lack of funding is a cause of deaths on our roads. There is no funding whatsoever for roads such as the N71, the R581 or the R582. I get details of little bits of funding, such as €20,000 or €30,000. This is nothing as such. The Minister of State should try to travel the road from my parish of Goleen to Cork city some time. I can tell him it would be the rockiest spin he would ever have. There is no funding for our roads and the roads are in severe danger of causing loss of life.

The Government talks of rural-proofing Government policy, but that is the biggest cod that was ever mentioned in this Dáil. It is a mockery to the people of rural Ireland. I raised the issue last week in regard to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. I asked the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, about rural-proofing. He said that he was speaking to people about it. However, people are being told what the Government is going to do. That is not rural-proofing. This is the same. If the Minister, Deputy Ross, wants to go ahead with a measure such as this what has he put in place to help the people of rural Ireland come and go within their community? He has put in place nothing. He will talk to them again. The Minister speaks of social isolation but I am afraid he does not have a clue what it means. Before this Bill ever reached the Dáil the Minister should have resolved that issue but he did not. He is failing in his duty to the people of Ireland. Our Constitution does not say it looks after the people of urban Ireland, its states that it looks after the people of Ireland. With this Bill the Minister, Deputy Ross, is failing in his duty to do that.

There are many issues causing upset, annoyance and frustration in this regard. The Minister was in west Cork during the summer and he will not deny the number of people he met to discuss roads and tourism issues. I accept he has a big brief. Every group he met, however, told him not to go ahead with this Bill. They were not all publicans and brewery people, they were people from rural Ireland who understood what rural Ireland means. The Minister listened to them but still he went ahead with this.

Another issue that applies in this respect is driver licences. There is frustration among young people on this matter. There is a complete lack of public transport where I live. The bus leaves at 7 a.m. and comes back at 8 p.m. Is that the way to treat people? Is this the way to bring forward Bills that cause further isolation, further mental health issues and further difficulties? The way the Minister, Deputy Ross, has gone about it is certainly wrong. One needs to look at the rural-proofing and resolve the issues before bringing forward another measure that might have catastrophic consequences for quite a lot of people. There are many people pleading for driver tests but there is a backlog for months. This leads to more frustration. There are many people who are returning to Ireland from all over the world. I met a gentleman over the weekend who has brought considerable employment to Ireland and yet he cannot get an Irish driver licence. Last week he could drive in Manhattan but he cannot drive in west Cork this week because he does not have an Irish driver licence. This is another way of making life more difficult for a person in a rural community.

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