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

The then Government had to realise that it had to give licences to people and it did. I know that a number of weeks ago the Taoiseach answered me in the House and said that the Government was not looking at an amnesty. If the Government is not going to look at an amnesty then it will have to wake up as this is a real problem which is affecting real people. I am sincerely asking it to come along and to do something to help those people.

On road safety, I condemn in the strongest possible way the knee-jerk reaction. I say first that it is not statistics but it is real people who have died on our roads recently and on a continuous basis. I also say of the families in Kerry, many of whom I know personally, that I am so sorry for their loss in recent weeks and months in particular. The Minister of State's knee-jerk reaction of saying that he was going to bring the speed limit down from 100 km to 80 km/h, from 80 km down to 60 km/h, and from 60 km down to 40 km/h or 50 km/h is ridiculous. He is failing to recognise that there are so many other problems on our roads. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, of course, is sound asleep. It is just focused on this and can think of nothing else only penalty points, fines and penalising. It cannot think of the solutions which are - I am continuously saying this - to cut the hedges on our roads, take the water off our roads and shoot the god damn deer that are jumping up on the bonnets of motor cars every day of the week and blow them into hell.

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