Brendan Ryan (Labour)

——NRA reports on breaches of speed limits by heavy goods vehicles. This is a serious matter. The NRA reported that 100% of single-decker buses on motorways and 90% of trucks and rigid vehicles were in breach of the speed limit. The average speed of heavy goods vehicles was 53 mph in the second last survey, even though they are not supposed to be able to travel faster than 55 mph because of the way in which they are constructed. In light of this crisis, I do not ask for a debate on road safety, although that is always necessary, but on the NRA report on speed limits. I have repeatedly raised these issues with Ministers and received their replies but I cannot find out the numbers of prosecutions of truck drivers for breaking speed limits. Neither the Garda nor the Department of Transport knows the answer. The report, which is extremely frightening, suggests that while car drivers on main roads and motorways are improving, everybody else is becoming worse, spectacularly so in some cases. We need to focus on this matter.

I also ask the Leader to organise a debate on immigration. When this matter was rightly raised by my party leader, he was called a number of names for doing so. We all now accept the need to work on the issues of integration, workers' rights, wage degradation and job displacement. Bank economists have issued mealy-mouthed claims that these issues have not been proven, which is as close as one can get to declaring a problem exists without actually saying so. We need to debate these matters, not in order to show hostility to immigrants, who are welcome, but to ensure them the Irish standards of living to which they are entitled.

In terms of looking to the future, I draw the House's attention to an article in today's newspapers. The Swedish Government has established a committee which will plan for Sweden's transformation to an oil-free economy over the next 15 years because it has decided there is no future in the oil-based economy. We do not seem to be able to deal with simple matters such as water or air pollution yet another country, which we should emulate in terms of its combination of social progress and economic development, is planning how to move away from a dependence on oil. We will probably collide with the crisis without giving thought to it. I concur with Senator Finucane's demand for a debate on energy, during which the Government could discuss its strategy over the next 15 years to deal with the imminent shortage and escalating costs of hydrocarbon fuels.

When will this House again debate legislation?