Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. On Deputy Fitzmaurice's suggested amendment, there is merit in the points he made about the length of waiting time for driving tests. We all wish that driving tests were available in as short a time as possible. I cannot support the Deputy's amendment, even though I think a valid point is being made. It has to be dealt with separately.

To take it to its logical conclusion, if this amendment was made it would mean that the protection intended by this section of the legislation would only apply for six weeks. That flies in the face of what is intended. The inquest into the deaths of Ms Geraldine Clancy and Ms Louise Clancy is where some of this amendment has come from - it is not exclusively from the Road Safety Authority. It was a recommendation directly from that inquest. I want to refer to a couple of other things before I finish. I am not a fan of guillotines. I was not a fan of them in the last Dáil and we do not have them now because we have a Business Committee.

There is also a responsibility on us as parliamentarians to not abuse the situation. We saw much repetition not addressing the issues in this Bill and that has been counterproductive. What we have got to keep front and centre is that this is a road safety initiative. The rights of young people must be taken into consideration in respect of the length of time they are waiting on the driving test list but Ms Louise Clancy was also a young person. She cannot speak for herself. I refer also to other families who had somebody killed in this scenario. I would like to hear the Minister answering the questions. The debate will keep going around in circles and unfortunately Standing Order 68, as has been called for by Deputy Broughan, terminates the debate. It does exactly the opposite of what has been stated is the desired outcome that the answers will be facilitated. That is the point that I was making. I will also address this "city slicker" thing that I heard this evening. I have lived in Kildare since 1978 and I am not a recent import to the area. I resent that kind of personalised remark. There is no place for it.

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