Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Senator O'Toole has given a good illustration of the failure of local democracy in this country because essentially city and county managers can do what they like and members of local authorities rarely find out until afterwards. A fundamental restoration of real local democracy is required whereby people can discover what is going on and be responsible for policy, instead of getting blamed for other people's decisions which is the usual fate of local authority members.

I am unhappy with the idea that a matter such as that covered by No. 1 on the Order Paper should pass through the Houses of the Oireachtas without debate. This involves depriving people of their liberty. We may debate whether it is necessary but these provisions are for the extended detention of people suspected of drug trafficking. We may or may not need those powers but I find it extraordinary that such a decision, to extend those powers for another year, would pass through the Oireachtas without a debate. I will not call a vote on the matter but I wish to inform the Leader that, as leader of the Labour Party group, I am unhappy that something as fundamental as the deprivation of people's liberty should ever go through without a debate in the Houses, as distinct from a debate in committee. It would be a good idea for a committee to review this matter but the report of the committee ought to be debated in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

A number of matters appeared in this morning's media which should give us great cause for concern. I cannot recall the figures but it appears to me that if we had the road fatality rates of a country like Sweden, between 200 and 300 Irish people would be alive who are killed here in road accidents every year. A survey was published this morning suggesting that 85% of drivers admit to regularly and deliberately breaking speed limits. Over 20% admit to driving when they had taken alcohol and I presume that to mean that they were aware of being in breach of the rules. The evidence shows that it is young men in particular who break the rules. We have the astonishing situation that young men are more successful in the driving test than young women. Those figures were produced by the Department of Transport. Therefore, we appear to have an extraordinarily inconsistent set of policies on driving, drivers and enforcing the rules. Incidentally, the people who broke the rules all thought they were great drivers. Less than 1% of them admitted to being bad drivers, while the remainder considered that they were good, very good or excellent.

We have a horrendous accident rate. Peculiar things are occurring in driving tests whereby the gender deemed to be better at passing the driving test is more at risk on the road. We desperately need to examine seriously the proper enforcement of our driving regulations. Where we enforce the rules, as for example with the smoking ban, and when people believe the rules will be enforced, we have a 97% rate of compliance. We must assume, therefore, that the reason people ignore the rules on drinking and speeding are because they have a reasonable expectation that the rules will not be enforced.

I agree fully with Senator Brian Hayes. There is something sinister about senior officials of a political party using paramilitary activities to find out information about the private lives of Members of the Oireachtas. That is not part of healthy, normal politics and nobody should excuse it or fudge over it, whatever the delicacy of the matter. It is a sinister development which can lead us only in one direction that will undermine democracy.