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

I will sum this up in a couple of words. The Minister of State knows sweet damn all about cutting silage. If he did, he would not have made the statement he did here on the record to disgrace himself and the Government he is supposed to represent. It is easy for the RSA to criminalise, penalise, demonise and paint the young people of Ireland as a target for increased revenue for the State, when the reality is that only 6.6% of traffic accidents involved young drivers and they may not even have been the cause of the accidents. It is a real pity the RSA does not focus more on the way it educates young people before they sit behind the wheel. For me, that is the real issue.

Will the Minister of State please take back the nonsensical and silly statement he made about theory tests being non-essential and only being essential for certain categories? It is essential for every young person of an age when he or she wants to get behind the wheel, like every one of us did. They are young people; we adore them and we want them to get on the road. They are as safe and entitled to do that as anybody else. If the Minister of State did know about cutting silage, he would know that a tractor cannot drive itself. A young boy or girl must be at the wheel. That is how the silage is cut and how the animals are fed in the wintertime, but a lot the Minister of State cares about the animals or the people or the young people. He has shown that here tonight.

See this speech in context