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

I reiterate I am vehemently opposed to the Bill in its entirety and to the additional proposal regarding learner drivers. A couple of weeks ago, the Government made much ado about the lack of teachers. Students who are going to college, whether they are in Kilgarvan, the Black Valley, Cahirciveen or wherever else, have to undertake teacher training in different schools around their areas. Many of them are in university in Cork. They go there for a few hours and then go home to Macroom, Bandon or Killarney to finish the rest of the day. Can the Minister visualise how that is going to work? Who is going to travel with them? Someone will have to drive these students to college in Cork, stay with them there for two hours and bring them back home again. That simply will not work. The Minister will ask me why these students do not have licences. They cannot get a provisional licence until they are 17 years of age. There is then a 22-week wait to do their tests. That is half a year. That is the truth and these are the facts. How are young people from Lauragh, Knocknagoshel, Gneeveguilla, Rathmore or Scartaglen going to manage? It just will not work. It is different in Cork or Dublin where there is a completely different way of life.

I am sorry the Minister does not understand and does not want to understand. I believe that every young person deserves to get the same chance as everyone else but because of this legislation, young people will be further isolated. They will not be able to go their apprenticeships or attend colleges and their whole education will be affected. Young people of 17 or 18 years of age cannot ask their father to drive them around the county because everyone has his or her own job to do, be it milking cows, teaching or whatever else. In rural Ireland, in places like Kerry, one cannot travel without a car.

The elderly are also angered by this Bill. Many people around the country are greatly angered by what the Minister is doing, and are asking what they did wrong. They do not believe they ever did anything to the Minister and are wondering whether he is trying to make a name for himself with this Bill. The Minister has not shown that people with 50 mg to 80 mg of alcohol in their blood while driving are the cause of fatalities or accidents. I certainly do not condone drunk-driving but a pint and a half pint never made anybody drunk. That is the truth. There is a lot of talk at the moment about hard and soft borders. The facts are that in the Six Counties, the limit is 80 mg, not 50 mg. One is not put off the road until there is 80 mg of alcohol in one's blood. In France the limit is 80 mg and if one is caught with a lower level than that, one is just fined; one is not put off the road and there are no penalty points.

Why are the people in Kerry and other rural places being scapegoated? Why is the Minister trying to criminalise them? They are hard-working people. There has been much talk about water and housing. These people just want to be left alone. It is harder and harder to get planning permission. Most people in rural Kerry have their own septic tanks and their own water supply. They are really asking for nothing except to be left alone. So much lipservice has been paid, since I have been a Member of this House, about what will be done for rural Ireland. Everything that is being done is hurting the people of rural Ireland. Why will the Minister not just leave them alone? I am begging him to leave them alone. I cannot understand how Fine Gael gave the Minister liberty to do this. That party, for almost 100 years, has gone in and out of rural countryside places such as Rathmore, Kenmare, the Black Valley and the Pocket in Glanmore, and people have voted for it in those places. It is now turning its back on those people and giving the Minister the power to put forward this Bill and to isolate them further.

The people in rural Ireland do not break the law. When this law is brought forward they will only have one thing to do; stay at home. They will not be able to socialise. They will not be able to go out to their local pub to have a pint and a half pint in the way they have been doing. I know a man of 93 years of age, and he has his pint and his half pint - at the very most two pints - and he has never been over the 80 mg limit. As Deputy Michael Healy-Rae has said, discretion was allowed. That man is 93 years of age but the minute this Bill is enacted, that man will be at home for the rest of his days because he will know that at the 50 mg level he will not be able to have a pint. That is the effect this Bill will have on such a man and many more like him, those who have worked tirelessly to put this country together. Those people had to do things that we do not understand. I do not understand what they did, and I am certain the Minister does not understand what they did or how they managed to keep going and keep the country going. We are here because of people like that man and many more who have gone.

That is how we came to be here.

I again call on the Minister to reconsider what he is doing. In Dublin, there are plenty of DARTs, buses and taxis but places like Sneem, Waterville or Caherdaniel do not have taxis. There is some service on a Saturday night to take the young people to the local disco. That is all they have, and there is nothing left to enable the elderly or middle-aged people to go out to the rural pubs. It is sad to think that while many rural pubs have closed, hundreds more will do so once this Bill is brought forward.

I am disappointed to note that not enough Deputies stood up to allow us to have a vote. At other times, we have stood up at with other parties just to give them the privilege and the chance to have a vote. We were not allowed that chance tonight and I regret it. I know that many of the those who were present would have liked to stand. I do not know who stopped them. I believe that when a Member is elected to this House, there is only one priority, namely, the people who vote for him or her. Many of the Deputies here have let their own people down. However, that is their business and I will not name them or anything like that. I am very disappointed that we did not have a vote tonight because this is a most serious issue. It is going to hurt County Kerry in a desperate way because by and large, it is a rural county and one cannot manage without a car. People realise that when this measure comes in, if they go out, have a pint and a half and are caught, they will lose their licence. That means they will lose their job, which means they lose everything. It could mean they lose their home.

This is shameless carry-on. I am hurt and I am praying that somehow, something will happen that will stop this from going through. The Minister seems to have the numbers. Fine Gael are backing him just because he is holding that party's Government together. It is a shame that Fine Gael has allowed the Minister to do this because many of its members do not agree with this measure either. What the Minister is doing is needless. He is hurting many people in rural Ireland and I am very sad and angry about it.

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