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

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this amendment. The constituency I represent is really concerned, worried and upset over what is being proposed. I want to speak about the changes in respect of our young drivers. In some of the places I am elected to represent, young people have no other way of travelling than to get their L-plates. Whether it is to go to a part-time job or from Sneem to university in Cork, and whether they are from Tuosist or in Ardea, Waterville or Ballinskelligs, they need to be able to go to work and earn money to better themselves or go to college. These people are worried that the changes being proposed will be detrimental to their parents, the people who brought them into the world and worked so hard to set them on their way. The young people have stood up on their own feet and purchased a motor car with a bit of assistance from part-time work or their parents and all they want to do is get on in the world and have the same opportunity as all of us had. I appeal for their voices to be heard.

Being a Teachta Dála means one is a messenger of the people. From the first day I was privileged to be elected to the Dáil, I have always considered myself to be a messenger, doing my job for the people I represent. I started travelling to clinics with my late father many years ago and many of the clinics we attended were in public houses. I am very sorry to say that I have to pass the doors of those public houses now because they are closed. I do not say it is the fault of the Minister because it started before he became Minister, but everything has had a knock-on effect and made it impossible for small businesses like the pubs to survive in rural areas. Many of the pubs I go into for my clinics are only hanging on by a thread. Glencar is a place I adore and where I know every house as I have been going there for years looking for votes for the council or Dáil Éireann. We were very proud to have had a small hotel and two pubs there but one unfortunately closed its doors and I am very sorry that respectable publicans had to recognise that it was no longer financially viable to keep their doors open.

The reason we are standing up to call for votes tonight is to express outrage over the changes that are being proposed and if I did not do that, I would be letting down the people who were good enough to back me over the years. I know the way of life of these people; I have been there and I have been part of it. It is a part of what we stand for and it is wrong to blacklist young people, or to criminalise their parents, no matter what part of Kerry they are from, just because they drive a car without a qualified driver with them. I am from Kerry and I am an elected representative for the county so I have to speak out for these people. I would not be doing my job if I did not stand up tonight and put their case on the record of Dáil Éireann. If other Members choose to sit down when a vote is called, that is their business. They are elected to be answerable to the people who vote for them but I and my colleagues will stand up to voice our outrage by calling votes. It is a sad sign in a democracy that we are not able to get enough people to stand up to allow a vote to proceed but I will abide by that. However, I will not let the people of County Kerry down by not standing up for people in Brosna, Knocknagoshel, Lauragh, Ardea, Tuosist, Sneem, Cahirciveen, out in Valentia Island and all the way over to Killorglin and into mid-Kerry. These are places I adore and which I have been travelling to day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. I know every single person in those areas and I have to stand up for them tonight and say what they have been telling me as recently as this weekend. They were talking about the Minister's Bill and I had to tell them I was disappointed that there were not more like-minded Deputies in the House so that we could at least put up a formidable battle against it. Unfortunately, we are failing because there are not enough like-minded Deputies. The major parties back the Minister, as do other Independents and Sinn Féin. The Minister has a lot of support and it looks like he is beating us. However, I have to have my say and speak for the people I represent.

I deal with people in the medical profession and in the legal profession and they say the magic word is "discretion". In the past, people knew other people's form and they knew who was sensible. If the Minister wanted to shut me up now, all he would need to do is say that this is the law. It has been the law but discretion was always allowed. Insurance companies honoured young people who were driving if they had a L-plate on the car. If there was not a person with a full licence on board, they were still insured if gardaí stopped them. There was a system of discretion to allow people to carry on driving their cars. I believe these young people are highly responsible and are good drivers. We all hear of cases where a person of any age drives recklessly and too fast. Some of us have been caught speeding over the years and I speak for myself in this regard. Anybody who says he is perfect is a liar and I will not tell lies here tonight. I have made the same mistakes as anybody else.

Our young people are very responsible.

Our young people adhere to the principle that if they are going out for a night, they would not dream of driving their motor car. They cherish the idea that they have the right to get up in the morning and drive to college or to their part-time work. All they are trying to do is get on in life. If the Minister was a young person in any of the places I am talking about and if he was miles from the nearest village, never mind the nearest town, how could he as a young person tell his busy mother or father - who might be farming or working - that he needs to go to college or to the fish factory where he was working and ask him or her to sit in the passenger seat for him? The practicality of it just does not make sense.

See this speech in context