Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

We agree to the Order of Business. Over the weekend, we yet again saw the appalling tragedy of the waste of eight young people's lives on our roads. These were young people who had everything to hope for and their families and communities are shattered as a result of their deaths on our roads. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Transport to come to the House to give us a full audit of the national road safety strategy. This strategy has been in place since 1998 and while there was a reduction in the number of road fatalities and injuries following the introduction of penalty points, unfortunately, we have gone in the other direction since then. More people died this year on our roads than last year. This is a crucial issue that we must address on an all-party consensus basis to ensure measures are taken to improve safety on our roads. Despite the Government's commitment to introduce a Garda traffic corps, only 33 garda officers have been deployed for this purpose. I understand that ten speed cameras are currently working despite the fact that the Government said that speed cameras were in place around the country. We need to beef up considerably current deterrents and safety measures to ensure this ongoing tragedy is stopped quickly. I ask the Leader whether such a debate could be organised very shortly.

The Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries, Deputy Gallagher, attempted to fillet our good friend and colleague, Senator Dardis, on yesterday's "Morning Ireland". The Minister of State did so because Senator Dardis had the courage to look for reform in the entire area of drift net policy and salmon resources.