Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Even to say that an inconvenience to people, who are breaking the law, by the way, is in some way is of equal importance to the deaths they cause is quite farcical and holds no water. There may be arguments about levels. There may be justifiable arguments, and there are, about rural Ireland. I think Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said that the problem was there beforehand, and it is. I acknowledge fully the problems of rural Ireland, the problem of loneliness and the difficulties people face. I acknowledge that this may cause problems to one or two people, but this is not an attack on rural Ireland. Those who say it is are not just being dishonest, they are being deliberately dishonest. Rural Ireland has problems and we have a duty to address them. Maybe the Deputy is right. Maybe we are not addressing them adequately, but those problems exist independently of what we are doing here today. They would be there one way or the other.

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