Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

I join Senator Paddy Burke in complimenting the Minister of State on the way he assisted Members and provided information about matters we raised. A number of issues created concerns for us and the Minister of State addressed them exceptionally well. There is no doubt that this Bill is an important addition to the range of legislation relating to road safety and road management that has come before the House in the past two years.

The House regularly discusses the loss of life on our roads. Notwithstanding what could be considered as a blip in the current statistics, there is little doubt that the work the Department, officials and various Ministers have done has led to a considerable decrease in the past ten years in the number of people killed on the roads. Some aggressive targets have been set via the road safety strategy and legislation such as that before us and we hope the provisions set out in the Bill will ensure that these are met. The costs incurred by people, the health service and society in general as a result of road deaths are tremendous. All Members would want to strive to ensure that we complete our work in this area.

I wish to make a couple of points to the Minister of State.