David Norris (Independent)

I agree with Senator Brian Hayes. The Leader has done the House a valuable service by bringing us back. It shows that at moments of crisis in the national life the Oireachtas can respond. The atmosphere is very fraught. People are naturally outraged but I anticipate that, as usual, calmness and proper discussion will prevail in this House.

While I do not wish to detract from the seriousness of the moment, we will be obliged to wait until the Bill comes before the House and I wish to raise a separate matter. We are facing into a bank holiday weekend and there is a worrying headline in The Irish Times today to the effect that Irish people spend three times more on alcohol than their EU counterparts. We have a serious problem regarding the abuse of alcohol, particularly when it is combined with the capacity of bank holiday weekends to produce tragic road accidents, to which we must attend.

I listened to Gay Byrne yesterday who stated that he hoped this would be a unique bank holiday weekend on which there would be no fatalities. I hope, like everyone, that this will be the case. One way to deal with this matter would be for the popular radio stations to which young people listen to broadcast appeals to them to drive responsibly at the weekend. As the House sits, there are young people alive and enjoying the sunshine who may very well not be alive at the end of the weekend.

It is incumbent on us to try to do something about this serious problem, especially because the drinks lobby in this country is so powerful. However, this is an independent Parliament and we should look to the welfare of young people. It must be borne in mind that so many of the accidents to which I refer involve young people with drink taken who crowd into cars late at night at weekends.