Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Every year, we have a ceremony in Drogheda to commemorate those who have lost their lives in road accidents. We have a packed church of 600 people. Each family places a lighted candle to commemorate the person they have lost. Regrettably, that number is growing every year. This year, 12 people in County Louth have died as a result of road accidents.

A Deputy opposite recited parishes and placenames, but we should be reciting the names of all those who have lost their lives in road accidents. Accidents in which alcohol was involved claimed a large proportion of those lives.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae spoke about unaccompanied drivers and the injustice this Bill would visit on them, but the facts are that between 2012 and 2016 there were 42 fatal accidents involving unaccompanied drivers. There is a real reason for the change the Minister is bringing in, and it is not without good cause. I understand that this year there has been a very significant increase in the number of unaccompanied drivers involved in fatal accidents.

Last year in County Kerry seven people died in road accidents, which sadly is the exact same number who died in County Louth. They are lives which were lost both in Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's county and in mine. The counties are different in terms of their geography and their drivers, but one common point is that in the studies that have been done between 2008 and 2012, seven is the exact number of people who die every year in fatal road accidents and are at the reduced alcohol limit.

This legislation is necessary. People are dying because they are involved in accidents having consumed that amount of alcohol and this legislation is about changing that. It is not about hating anybody, or about hating rural Ireland as Deputy Danny Healy-Rae says. It is about loving life, protecting it and keeping families and everyone else safe on the roads.

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