Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Some years ago, after a strong campaign in this House launched by Senator Quinn, the Government accepted the principle of penalty points as a means to reduce road fatalities and change driver behaviour. However, we now have an admission from Garda members that they are being directed to go to certain areas of the country to push up detection rates, thereby increasing penalties for drivers who were slightly over the limit.

We are all familiar with the situation described some years ago by the former Senator, Willie Farrell, as a garda with a hairdryer stood at a junction, wishing to take out a number of motorists. However, there is a major difference between proper enforcement of the penalty points system and merely frustrating motorists in the manner that was eloquently described by gardaí at their recent conference. Will the Leader arrange a debate with the Minister for Transport or the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on this matter in the coming months, particularly as Garda time is being wasted in trying to frustrate motorists in the way I have described?

The Government should fully support Commissioner Charlie McCreevy's attempt to introduce the services directive through the European Commission. I accept that there are difficulties in France at present because of the impending referendum but logic demands that if there is a single economic zone, there should also a single services market to match it. Senator Ross and others indicated yesterday that a cartel has operated in the banking sector in this country for many years. Competition is the best way to take that cartel out of operation. It is only right that European consumers should be able to obtain the benefits offered by service providers throughout the EU.

Commissioner McCreevy is correct to push this agenda. I accept that it was initiated by his predecessor but Mr. McCreevy has inherited responsibility for steering through the directive. Due to the current difficulties in France, it is crucial that the Commission and the Council support Commissioner McCreevy in his attempts to introduce greater competition and greater protection for consumers as a means of taking on cartels and other protected interests in the European Union.