Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

It is time to remove stamp duty for first-time buyers of second-hand properties. Similarly, people who wish to trade up from their family homes and buy brand new properties will be exempt from stamp duty but they must pay the duty if they buy second-hand properties. Consequently, they are deterred from selling their houses. We should try to maintain a constant roll-over of three or two-bedroom semi-detached houses on the market, but stamp duty deters people. Examining the housing sector from this angle would immediately encourage more people into the market.

Senator Finucane's point about driver testing was the answer I received last week. It is shocking that more than 400,000 people, one in five drivers, are on provisional driving licences. A recent report recommended reducing the alcohol limit to zero, which is a road I hope we will not go down. People are capable of going out and having one or two drinks. The zero limit would be fair in cities where public transport is readily available, but it would be dreadful to have it in a rural area and economy. I would oppose the limit. We would also be killing off a social aspect. I hope that ours is not a knee-jerk reaction to road fatalities.

Previously, I suggested that we seriously examine the issue of drug driving. Last week in the UK, a report showed that 20% of young motorists take to the road everyday while high on illegal drugs. It also found that young people are twice as likely to be driven by someone high on drugs rather than over the alcohol limit. Before going down the road of criminalising someone who has had one glass of wine before driving home, let us get real and examine the modern issue of drug driving.

Could the House urge the Minister for Transport to stop issuing statements about revamping the driving test and not allowing provisional licence holders to drive their cars after failing their tests when it is clear that such would be impossible, given that there are 400,000 people on that list? Let us clear the backlog before talking about altering the current situation. Otherwise, there will be further chaos.