Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Always with the permission of the Chair.

I am again glad to be able to return to the Bill, and specifically to amendment No. 22. I again appeal to the good offices of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to take this opportunity to withdraw the remarks he made about us in the Rural Independent Group and the personalised attack he made on me in front of my daughter. I have asked him a number of times but I will give him the opportunity again. He seems to have lost his voice when it comes to answering any of the questions we ask in the Chamber, and we have asked him many questions. Indeed questions are arising by the day and the Minister does not seem to be able to answer them.

I want to specifically address the issue of learner drivers and the criminalisation of a cohort of young people, the vast majority of whom are good people. There is an old adage - mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí. I was contacted by a young boy of 18 earlier. He did his driver's test and unfortunately failed. He has a job that requires him to travel from my own village to Dungarvan. He now cannot travel because his mother is unable to drive him. It is a single-parent family and she cannot accompany him. He bought the car, he has the insurance, he did his lessons and his tuition and he was hopeful. It is a nerve-wracking engagement for a young person. I do not know why he failed but he failed. He cannot reapply for a month. That is a basic example of denial of human rights. If he could reapply this evening and get that test within a week or ten days that could be accepted, but he cannot reapply for a month. He could then be waiting for as long as five months in Tipperary. If he then attempts to drive unaccompanied on the road to satisfy the employer who gave him the job on a farm in Dungarvan in Deputy Mary Butler's constituency, this legislation would make him a criminal despite the fact that he has insurance. It would also criminalise his mother. The Minister might answer this. If it is this man's own car and he owns it, can the parent be criminalised, fined and given penalty points as well? That is what the Minister is doing and that is discrimination. We will call that young chap John because, to quote the old Irish Pressreport, that is what he likes to be called. Is é sin a ainm. Would this happen if he got a job in Dublin?

He might not get a job milking cows in Dublin but, whatever job he gets, he can get the DART, Luas, bus or taxi. He could cycle, using the very successful rent-a-bike scheme, or use many other forms of transport. Why should a man in Tipperary be criminalised for doing the very same thing as someone in Dublin, namely, having the noble goal of seeking work, finishing his education or bettering himself in some way? Why should he be stigmatised as a criminal for having the noble aspiration of finishing his education, getting a job, doing a training course in agriculture or doing driving lessons to pass his test? He is victimised and criminalised. That is how I see it. If the Minister does not listen here, some of the young buachaillí or cailíní will challenge this because it is downright naked, basic discrimination against young boys and girls from rural areas. One cannot say otherwise. That is what it is. We are receiving complaints on why we are debating this Bill. This is a part of the Bill that the Minister recommitted to include in this legislation.

I met Mr. Clancy from Fermoy or north-east Cork recently and I totally sympathised with him and thanked him for engaging with me on the tragic loss of his wife and daughter. It is so sad but a sad case and desperate, hard cases make bad laws. They do not make good laws. It is the greater good that we have to try to serve here. We do not want to see anyone driving recklessly. We do not want to see anyone trying to commit crimes. As I said, we sympathise completely with the family in question and any other in the same situation. It is so sad. We can never walk in their shoes but we have to be balanced about our assessment and understanding of legislation and our attempts to debate with the Minister and his officials on this.

The shutters are down, however, and they will not be lifted. There is no engagement, at committee level, here or elsewhere, including privately. We have to be realists as rural Independent Deputies. The Acting Chairman is a rural Deputy. Every rural Deputy knows the difficulties, including the lack of rural transport services, the state of rural roads and the punitive cost imposed on families trying to pass their national car tests and keep their cars taxed, insured and on the roads. The costs are punitive enough without criminalising families for what is outside their control. They are unable to work under this legislation. They will be unable to keep within this legislation. If they do, they will be unable to finish their education and enter employment.

At present there is nearly full employment. There is a huge shortage of staff in the catering industry and in the hospitality sector. Chefs cannot be got. There is already a crisis among farm contractors. We have heard this from Farm Contractors Ireland and all the agriculture bodies. They have referred to the lack of apprenticeships and to how badly apprenticeship schemes are needed across the board, especially in the industries I have mentioned. I refer to fishing, farming, contracting, the construction industry and the hospitality sector. One can put on all the apprenticeship courses one likes but how will the places be filled?

LIT Tipperary has campuses in Thurles and Clonmel. They are working together, with imagination, to try to offer imaginative apprenticeship schemes to meet the needs and allow young people achieve their full potential in rural and urban areas. In one fell swoop, the Minister is saying we will allow people participate but that we will not allow them on the road, or allow them to participate unless they live in a city or well-serviced town. There are not many towns where one can get transport to go to college in Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick or Cork. They do not have bus or train services, nor the DART, Luas and all the other services, such as the bicycle scheme in Dublin.

The Minister visited Tiobraid Árann theas last Friday in a kind of scurry or flurry. He told me I would not be welcome to meet him on Wednesday night even though I was invited by the transport company. I thank the company for that. The Minister went to Kerry and announced so-called funding to put on bus services for people who wanted to socialise or have a social evening in certain places. As I said at the start, the amount of money, €490,000, would not administer a half decent scheme in two or three counties. We have Ring a Link servicing Tipperary, Kilkenny and Carlow. I am a founding member. It has a top-class booking system. It is state-of-the-art. I asked the Minister to visit the headquarters in Kilkenny. He might. I would appreciate it if he did. I did not hear any mention of any effort to provide transport by way of helping the families or anybody I am talking about so the young people can go to college to finish their education or take up apprenticeships. There was no mention whatsoever of that. How can the Minister just pick out one part of the Bill and say we will make an effort, feeble as it might be, to try to help the people in rural Ireland to socialise, visit their friends or visit the next town, albeit on a restricted basis? Funding received for any service has to be welcomed, but how can one discriminate? The Minister picked Tipperary and Kerry, for reasons unknown-----

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