David Norris (Independent)

This is the third or fourth occasion on which we have dealt with the area of road safety in the past 12 months. This suggests that the matter is either a significant priority or else it is a sign of the political bankruptcy of the House in that we cannot come up with new ideas. I doubt it is the second because the motion was put down in the name of Senator Dooley, who is one of the brightest members of the Joint Committee on Transport. We are lucky to have people such as the Senator in the House.

Unlike Senator Ross, I do not consider myself to be a member of the Opposition and, as an Independent Member, I am capricious with my vote. I vote along the lines in which I believe – sometimes with the Government, sometimes against it. Looking at the terms of the motion and the amendment, it strikes me that there is an element of Tweedledum and Tweedledee at play here. For example, the motion commends while the amendment condemns. It appears that we are engaging in a game of political ping-pong. I am not sure this is absolutely necessary because, in my opinion, there is nothing offensive in the Government motion, which simply recognises the situation.

I wish to place on record, my admiration and delight at what the Minister for Transport, Deputy Séamus Brennan, did in terms of taking his speech as read and then dealing with substantive points raised earlier in the debate. That is an excellent headline for other Ministers. We can all read the speeches prepared in advance. It is great when a Minister has the confidence to stand up and depart from the script to discuss issues from the debate. That is the essence of vital political life and I hope it is a trend that will be followed by other Ministers.

The Minister was very frank about speed limits. I raised this matter when last we debated this issue. Speed limits are chaotic. The problem is that we cannot get people to respect the law as there is no consistency or fairness in it. The Minister was honest enough to say that there are certain places where the limit is 30 mph when it should be 50 mph and some places where it is 60 mph when it should be 30 mph. When I raised this during the previous debate, I was told that the setting of speed limits was in the hands of the local authorities. I suggest that these authorities should be given a brief to ensure there is an overall traffic plan in terms of speed limits or, alternatively, the power should be taken away from the local authorities and given to a central traffic authority. People will not respect plainly insupportable alterations to speed limits. I have provided examples about various roads in the past with which Members will be familiar. It would add insult to injury to put speed cameras on these roads because it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. It is a stupid idea.