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

I have spoken at great length on this Bill on more than one occasion and am glad to have the opportunity to speak on it again, although more amendments have been made. Further difficulties will be inflicted on the people who live in rural Ireland if the Bill is passed in its current form.

When I entered the discussions on the programme for Government - and I stayed quite a long time, maybe until the evening before the Government was formed - the Minister was involved too, there was an agreement that the Government would introduce rural-proofing. The last Government was absolutely hammered in rural Ireland and it was obvious that was because it turned its back on it. The promise then was that to try to appease several rural Deputies, it would rural-proof all policies coming before the people in future. I did not believe it and that is why I did not support the Government. Thankfully my judgment was right, although it may not always be. When I discussed this Bill before Christmas, I asked the Minister what rural-proofing was put in place and he had no answer. He said he spoke to the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, and a few others. I did not ask him to whom he spoke. He spoke to me and to the country. What did he put in place to try to at least alleviate the difficulties this Bill is going to cause for people who live in rural Ireland?

Deputy Broughan says rural Ireland is going strong. He is in Dublin and I would be very slow to tell him how things are going in Dublin because I would not be fully sure of how they are. I certainly know how they are going in rural Ireland because I come from west Cork. I am proud of where I come from. I am proud to stand here and tell the Minister how people feel about this Bill because I have spoken to them. I took time out during the previous discussions to make sure, in case I was taking the wrong direction. We are human, we can make mistakes but I have not met anybody who told me I was wrong on this issue. They ask why this Bill is going through in its current form and now the Minister is criminalising parents.

Where is the Minister going? In the name of God, what has possessed him? What is wrong? He spoke to me before I ever entered Dáil Éireann and asked me to consider joining his party. I spoke to him about rural issues and he agreed with me that they needed to be tackled. He did not agree with me that he would further complicate matters and further ruin people's lives in rural Ireland. Why did he not explain that to me? I have met people that the Minister has met recently and is going to meet, throughout Munster in particular, about joining his party. Excuse me, the Minister is in a group, not a party. I asked them what they think and they are not impressed. It is over as far as they are concerned. Anyway, the Minister can go ahead and meet them. He met me and thankfully I did not join his party. I would be like more of them, drifting away now one by one. The Minister has turned his back on the people here. He did not rural-proof this Bill.

I have no intention of standing up here and criticising him only I am telling the truth and talking on behalf of the people I love. They are the people I represent in west Cork. There might be a few of them who support the Minister but they certainly are not coming to me. I do not see the Deputies in government here supporting the Minister at any time. When this Bill has been discussed, the Government benches have been empty the whole time. Down deep, they do not agree with the Minister. They have to toe the line because they want to stay in government. They are not here. If they were, they would be sitting behind the Minister. I do not expect to have a full House but at least some of them could be here.

The Minister may continue on because he is determined in what he is doing. Why did he not look at how we could alleviate the situation with young people and driving licences? I come from a very rural community and there is no public transport as such. There is a bus in the morning and one in the evening. The car has to be the means of transport. I have a load of young people including members of my own family who want to have a driving test. They cannot have one. Why did the Minister not at least solve the driving test issue, so that people could book a driving test and know they would have it within a month or two? He did not do so because he had no intention of rural-proofing the Bill. He did not proof it at all. He came up with an idea and here he is floating it. He is criminalising good, hard-working parents who are in a very difficult situation. They are trying to work. By God, it is difficult to survive, whether in rural or urban areas. The Minister is treating them like criminals when it is quite questionable what he is at. He did proof this or intend to try to resolve one issue before moving on.

Could the Minister have looked at having speed limiters fitted in cars that young people are driving? Perhaps that was the road he should have travelled. We would all be quite understanding of that. No, that was not to be thought of. We will do it the heavy-handed way. As Deputy Troy said a while ago, there is a law there already. How many people have been brought before the courts in respect of that law? That is an important question and the Minister might answer it later. According to him, quite a lot of people are breaking the law so we need to find out how many have been brought before the courts.

The Minister has taken the easy way out. Too many collar-and-tie boys, pencil pushers may have been driving him along. The Minister has turned his back on areas where he could have helped to save lives. He should look at the appalling condition of our roads. They are in a dreadful state. I brought the Minister down to west Cork last year and he visited eight projects. All eight groups are still waiting for a response and they have not got that yet. I cannot chance taking him down any more. One of the roads he did travel was between Ballydehob and Bantry. I was in the car with him and we got a fair tossing. Not one thing has happened to that road since he sat in that car and the back of it walloped off the ground. I know the Minister cannot be responsible for every pothole in Ireland but he certainly was inside that car. To think I was talking to a gentleman the other day who goes to work every morning and said that if he does not travel on the other side of that road, the tools in the back of his van will end up in the front. That is the N71 road and it is in such an appalling condition that it should be closed. If there was any understanding of health and safety, that road should be closed officially to traffic. No, it is open. If it was a young person driving unaccompanied, the parents would face jail, but there is no-one going to face anything here. They can be tossed off the road, two or three can be killed, move on, so what? The same happened before.

During Storm Ophelia, trees killed three people. Was there any report from the Minister's office? I mentioned it a number of years back in the council. I said there should be a report drawn up by each local authority about roadside trees. I mentioned it several times in this Chamber. I have not heard the Minister saying it is a serious issue. Let us bring that before the House in a road traffic Bill and I will support the Minister. I know it would help save lives. Sadly, that is not the case. It is only a few lives. It does not sell newspapers or give people a chance to fill out their columns about what they are doing and what they are not doing.

When he was a Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív brought in provisions about the night-time bus service. Some people called it the booze bus and they all call it different things. Actually that was what I call rural-proofing. Why did the Minister not bring in something like that so that people would be collected from the public house at night? There would be funding set aside for that. That would have been a move in some direction in respect of tackling this issue. From start to finish, the whole thing lacked any bit of rural-proofing. I do not think rural Ireland is in the Minister's brief. If it is, I certainly would like to see it. What has the Minister done in this Bill that will help create an easier life and not put extra stress on people who are already stressed to the very limit. Our young people are reaching the age of driving and there is no public transport service. By God, if we want to pay for a public transport service in rural Ireland we know what we will pay and young people cannot afford it. They are trying to work hard by night and at weekends. They are trying to pay for their college and begging their parents to work with them to try and get a car. It is just the ordinary basic moves for a young person growing up. Their parents are paying €4,000 or €5,000 for insurance and maybe €2,000 for a car. The Minister puts this Bill in front of them to criminalise them, just in case he has not punished them enough and the Government has not got them cornered enough in rural Ireland. It will chase them out of there one way or the other. How can anyone consider putting a parent in jail for trying to help his or her child?

I urge the Minister to think again. I ask him to step back from this. A lot of Ministers and politicians are famous for a lot of things in their time but I do not think he will want to be famous for what is going on here. I am only talking on behalf of the people of west Cork. I certainly do not have anyone in my offices telling me that the Minister is right in the move he is making or that they are delighted with him. Absolutely not. They are telling me to stand up and are giving out to me, even though I told them there is no more I can do. They are telling me I am not doing enough and that I should get the Minister out of office straight away. I say I cannot but that is the view of the people of west Cork. I bring their views to the floor of Dáil Éireann and am proud to do so.

The Minister must find money for our roads. I do not like a situation where a beautiful village like Leap is full of holes or where in a beautiful village like Drimoleague in west Cork I could lose part of my wheel because of holes in the road. I tried to show the Minister the road between Rosscarbery and Clonakilty.

Perhaps 20 or 30 trees fell across that road during the storm. Thank God nobody was killed. The back of my car slipped on that road recently, and I had four good tyres under it. Nothing is happening. People are frustrated with the amount of driving they have to do. They are spending hours in cars travelling through west Cork. It should be the same as travelling into Dublin, where there are beautiful passing bays and flyovers. We should not be treated like second class citizens. As long as I am in Dáil Éireann I will raise these issues, and I assure the Minister that the people of rural Ireland will never forget him because of this Bill. Any poor, unfortunate Deputy sitting with him will be thought of in the same way.

I ask the Minister again to rural proof this Bill. He should go back to the drawing board and sit down with the people who know how people are suffering in rural Ireland, who know the pain that is out there and the difficulties people are facing. He should not further their difficulties but rather work through the issues with those people. There certainly have to be controls, but people should not be threatened with jail sentences on this issue. That is what the Minister has done. I will stand by rural Ireland for as long as I am here. I do not like it when Deputies from Dublin tell me that rural Ireland is going strong. They should come down and look at The Bridge Bar in Ballylickey, which closed with the loss of ten jobs only a couple of months ago, thanks to the Minister. The lady who ran the pub had a bus to take her customers home every night to make sure that none of them drove. They could not even drive the next morning. She said they could not go to mass on a Sunday morning with the worry. She shut her doors, and many more premises have been shut in west Cork in recent times. Rural Ireland is not going well. It is going through a very difficult period. It needs assistance and help. It does not need further condemnation, criminalisation and finger pointing. The Minister must stop the pencil pushers from the top from telling people in rural Ireland how to live their lives. He should look at the Constitution and stand by it. If not, he should stand down.

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